Location: Esther B. O’Keeffe Building, 102 Four Arts Plaza, Palm Beach.
Hours: Sunday – 1 to 5 p.m.; Monday – 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Tuesday – 1 to 5 p.m. (Four Arts members only on Tuesdays in January); Wednesday through Saturday – 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Closed on major holidays.
Tickets: $10, no charge for Four Arts members. Are available at the door or may be reserved in advance. Walk-ins are welcome.
Edgar Degas (1834–1917) is one of the most revered artists of all time. The French Impressionist is renowned for his paintings, sculptures, prints, and drawings that capture the world of late 19th-century Paris, especially the everyday lives and psychology of his subjects. He is best remembered for his pastels and oil paintings of ballet dancers, which account for half of his oeuvre, but this exhibition illuminates lesser-known aspects of his career and life through a selection of 104 rare works on paper.
One of the keenest observers of human nature, Degas was deeply private despite his success and fame. The Private Impressionist sheds light on the personality of the complex man and the artists he called friends, and reveals his eclecticism, both in diversity of subject matter and in his experimentation with techniques. It contains 24 drawings, 23 prints, eight photographs, one sculpture, and a letter by Degas. Created mainly for himself, as reflections or experiments and with no intention to sell or display them, their subject matter is personal. Highlights include self-portraits, depictions of his family and friends, and early drawings after antique sculpture and Old Master paintings. They also depict some of Degas’ most common subjects — dancers, female nudes, jockeys, racehorses, and portraits.
Displayed alongside Degas’ works are 47 pieces by his contemporaries, including Mary Cassatt, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Paul Cézanne, Édouard Manet, Camille Pissarro, and Eadweard Muybridge, among others. These, along with photomurals, illustrated timelines, and video and music selections, provide further insight into his private world and demonstrate his influence.
All the works on display in The Private Impressionist are from the private collection of Robert Flynn Johnson, Curator Emeritus of the Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. The exhibition is co-curated by Johnson and Louise Siddons, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Art History at Oklahoma State University (Stillwater, OK) and founding co-director and former curator of the OSU Museum of Art. It is accompanied by a hardbound 126-page fully illustrated catalogue with essays by Mr. Johnson and Dr. Siddons.
Exhibition lecture: Robert Flynn Johnson, “Chasing Degas: My Four Decades of Seeking Out and Collecting Works by Edgar Degas and His Circle,” Wednesday, January 21, 2026, from 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., Walter S. Gubelmann Auditorium.
First Friday tours: December 5 and January 2 from 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., spend an hour in deep exploration of Edgar Degas and his circle with Four Arts’ Head of Fine Arts and Curator Rebecca A. Dunham.
Edgar Degas, The Private Impressionist: Works on Paper by the Artist & His Circle is organized by Landau Traveling Exhibitions, Los Angeles, CA in association with Denenberg Fine Arts, West Hollywood, CA.