There really is a perception that if you know the ballet studies, you know Degas. Actually, nothing could be further from the truth. Like Picasso, Degas was a relentless innovator in everything he did -- in drawing, in printmaking, in photography.
For many 19th-century artists, the usual reaction to photography was no reaction at all. They simply ignored it. But not Degas. He was deeply interested in the new medium, not just as a tool that could help with his drawings and paintings, but as an art form in its own right.
In a way, the show is as much about Paul Sachs as it is about Edgar Degas. Indeed, the two are inextricably linked, at least as far as Harvard is concerned.
It really is a remarkable collection. Because Harvard began collecting so early, on so many levels, it can trace the full range of Degas' artistic interests in a way that few other museums can match.
