Imagine peering through a keyhole to see one of the great Impressionists of the 19th century at work.  Raw, uninhibited, yet still classic Impressionist pieces fill the gallery at the Carnegie Arts Center to make up the works of, “Edgar Degas: The Private Impressionist Works on Paper by the Artist and His Circle.”
The exhibit, a West Coast premier, allows you to immerse yourself in works originally created for the artists’ own benefits. The majority of the pieces were simply created to experiment with technique, especially in preparation for later paintings and drawings.
“This has been sort of an eye opener for me. We see works he really never intended to show to the public. We see his brain at work,” said Paula Crawford, volunteer at the Carnegie Arts Center. “After seeing all the different influences, now I go back and look at the ‘famous paintings’ and I see so much more now than I ever did.”
As visitors enter the exhibit, a short biography and chronology of Edgar Degas greets them, as well as a brief introduction by owner of the works Robert Flynn Johnson, Curator Emeritus of the Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.
However, many of the pieces speak for themselves. Smudged pastels, blotted monotype lithographs, and sketchy graphites on wove paper show the natures of the artists.  In these private works, originally unintended for showing, the viewer can see how the art crawled out of its creator’s talented hands.
The pieces still do not look rushed or hurried out.  Instead they look very…Impressionistic.  The artist’s impressions of a person, landscape or animal leap out onto the paper or canvas.
“Someone told me about what Impressionism was, and how it all really worked with subtlety and just trying to convey a message through various minute forms of artwork.” Joel Ornelas, (senior, Business Administration) said.  “So that kind of got me thinking ‘How can that be artwork?’ … so I came here.”
The exhibit shows works by Edgar Degas, Paul Cézanne, Mary Cassatt, Jean-Auguste Dominique Ingres and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, but also pieces by lesser-known artists of the period, some of them self-professed disciples of Degas.
It is also interesting to note the experimentation of the pieces that seemed to coincide with the inventive nature of the Industrial Revolution.  Degas experimented with a lot of printmaking during this time, as well as photography.  In this way, the gallery shows another side to this well-known painter of the dancers, a private side that craved innovation and interpretation.
“Edgar Degas: The Private Impressionist Works on Paper by the Artist and His Circle” is on display now and will remain open till Jan. 13, 2013.  Tickets can be bought upon arriving to the Carnegie Arts Center for $10.  So take a moment to step back in time to the art of innovation, and immerse yourself in the Impressionist’s private world.