Despite the popularity of his work, Edgar Degas has remained one of the most elusive of the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists. The ballet, the racecourse and women at their toilet were his three favourite subjects and he returned to them again and again in the course of his long career, never feeling that he had exhausted these themes. Degas never forgot his early academic sketches to his late pastels the quality of his drawings never faltered.