Degas The Creep

A notebook entry.

Monsieur et Madame Edouard Manet, by Edgar Degas, c. 1868. Oil on canvas. Kitakyūshū Municipal Museum of Art, Japan.

This notebook entry was written as part of Project 1,825 Things.

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Manet, who was loose and relaxed and found his confidence among women, painted them, conversed with them, and sometimes seduced them, but who really knows how often. He liked their company. He was interested in their creativity, in their ideas. You can see his ease in the way he painted a hand, any hand. To Manet, the world was a thing you could touch. So early on, he had already found this. He knew the sound of a long full skirt in a room at 6 o’clock when the light was failing. Taffeta, organza, cotton, silk. He knew the sound of a summer skirt in a warm room, and could paint it. He knew what violets smelled like when you are in love with someone, and he could paint that too.