"No art is less spontaneous than mine... What I do is the result of reflection and study of the great masters; of inspiration, spontaneity, temperament …I know nothing." Edgar Degas (1834-1917).
With characteristic dry humour, Degas presented his artistic endeavours as the result of other people’s hard work and artistic originality, setting himself apart from his fellow Impressionists—he largely rejected the term despite being widely considered an integral founder of the movement—by choosing to direct his attention towards pensive, isolated study of the old masters. By claiming to know “nothing”, the artist was making a conspicuously paradoxical statement; by learning through imitation—be it drawing styles, statements, ideologies, and both academic and artistic radicalities—he was not wholly in error when according others credit for his work, but it is far from the whole story.
