Impressionist art comes to Petaluma

Edgar Degas, one of the most well-known impressionist painters, has works on display at the Louvre and other top museums. Starting June 20 the Petaluma Arts Center will host his work in a private collection called “Degas: Works on paper by the artist and his circle.”

Val Richman, director of the Petaluma Arts Center, said this is the biggest exhibition the center has ever hosted.

“This is an amazing opportunity to bring a high-profile artist to Petaluma,” she said. “The owner of this collection, Robert Flynn Johnson, is a good friend of ours. When we noticed there was a six-week gap between his second-to-last and final exhibit, we bid for the spot, raised the money and now we’re going to have a Degas exhibition here.”

Johnson, the former curator for the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco Legion of Honor, said his collection spans 40 years of bidding at auctions in Paris, England and the United States. “I got my first piece in 1973 in Paris, for $500. It was a Degas monotype,” he said. “Back in the 70s you could find anything for a reasonable price. This is a scholar’s collection of Degas’ work, and it was purchased on a scholar’s pay. These sketches, photographs and monotypes truly represent Degas’ mastery of media.”

A 19th century French impressionist Degas, focused on musculature and the human form in his most notable works. Arguably his most famous piece, the oil on canvas “The Ballet Class,” hangs in the Musee d’Orsay in Paris.

Included in the exhibition are works from Degas’ contemporaries and friends: Mary Cassatt, Henri de Toulous-Lautrec, James Jacques Joseph Tissot and David Levine.

“Something you should know about Degas, is he isn’t the ‘traditional’ French impressionist,” Johnson said. “He traveled the world and made art for himself. One of the pieces, the ‘Plough Horse’, I purchased at an auction after the bidding process because no one bid on it. The rich people didn’t want a plough horse, they wanted a Degas race horse. He was a truly remarkable man and his sketches, I argue, are just as fantastic as the finished paintings.”

(Contact William Rohrs at william.rohrs@arguscouri er.com)