Discovering Degas: Collecting in the Age of William Burrell

Fascinating online lecture from ARTscapades introducing a Degas exhibition at the Burrell Collection.

Frances Fowle from the National Galleries of Scotland outlined the themes in William Burrell’s own collection covering the ballet, jockeys and modern life. She talked about how he had acquired these works and showed us excellent illustrations of them.

However the most interesting section was when she looked at how Degas work was collected in Britain in general telling us about the main collectors and their collections. She introduced us to some wonderful characters and gave an overview of the art market at the time. She also looked at where some of these works can now be seen which shows a tradition of donating art and of the patterns of buying of public collections.

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