"Degas takes his place somewhere near the top of the class of those painters who could not or would not see a contour as if it were the edge and the end of something; as if the mind, having followed the eye across the expanse of visible surface, had no interest with what lay behind, had no concern to go farther on, but had to turn and travel back the way it came; as if the eye and the object were stuck for ever in the same relative position, and as if the slightest movement of either would not altogether transform the contour and reveal new forms that a moment before were invisible. Degas knew not only that the contour is insatiable but that in its instability lies its great meaning for the artist intent to solve the double problem of volume and movement. The mutability of the contour is the starting point for an imaginary exploration of the complete form depicted; once the mind grasps the significance of the drawing of that single area, the imagination quickly takes in the whole; the artist's attitude to his subject sweeps into our consciousness, the inertia of our mind is over- come' and there suddenly awakens in us those loud echoes of the artist's own emotions which the experience of his art can alone induce."
"Degas Sculptures" by R.R. Tatlock
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