Valery, Degas

in 'Degas Danse Dessin': 'At seventy, he [Degas] tells Ernest Rouart: "Il faut avoir une haute idée, non pas de ce qu'on fait, mais de ce qu'on pourra faire un jour: sans quoi, ce n'est pas la peine de travailler.[You have to have a lofty idea, not of what you do, but of what you will be able one day to do: otherwise there's no point in going on working."'

Degas Danse Dessin is the current exhibit at the Musée d'Orsay. My favourites are still the women bathing and the women ironing: they feel so strongly attached to the earth. The ballerinas are lovely, of course, but airy, and looking to lift off, to transcend their earthiness.