Paris show: Degas' art masterpieces are all a 'brilliant illusion'

Three Dancers In Blue Skirts And Red Corsages' was made around 1903. Photo: AFP

It’s always been assumed that Edgar Degas worked in the wings and rehearsal rooms of the Paris Opera to produce his staggering pictures of its dancers. But, like the ballets themselves, it turns out that his behind-the-scenes masterpieces were a brilliant illusion.

“All his scenes of the Opera are phantasmagoric,” said Henri Loyrette, former head of the Louvre and Musee d’Orsay in Paris. A huge new show at the Orsay put together by the French art historian reveals that Degas hardly ever sketched in the theatre, never mind backstage.