The Quiet Observer
is a story about the artist Edgar
Degas. Degas was a shy and sensitive man and he
found it difficult to get to know people, let alone ask
them to be models for his paintings. So he often just
observed people from afar, and painted them as they
were in their everyday lives.
Our story exaggerates a little. Degas didn’t really
hide from people, or creep around spying on them.
But he did watch them carefully, sometimes without
them noticing. And he did produce paintings
that show ordinary people as they had seldom
been painted before.
“
I
a
l
w
a
y
s
t
r
y
t
o
l
o
o
k
m
y
b
e
s
t
i
f
M
r
.
D
e
g
a
s
i
s
a
r
o
u
n
d
.
Y
o
u
n
e
v
e
r
k
n
o
w
w
h
e
n
h
e
m
i
g
h
t
s
t
a
r
t
s
k
e
t
c
h
i
n
g
y
o
u
.
”
