Cotton, steel, sugar and absinthe

Published Date: 27 July 2008 IMPRESSIONISM AND SCOTLAND National Gallery Complex, Edinburgh IT WAS the one that got away. Among the very fine French and Scottish pictures – and those of a far more workaday nature – on show on The Mound this summer is a rea In a time when we're practically immune to the shock of the new, it's hard to imagine just how transgressive this image of an unmistakably miserable prostitute drinking in a bar was considered to be. Her dull eyes are as empty as the glass in front of her is full. To her left is a drunk. Their dark shadows fall on the glass behind them. As a portrayal it is unremittingly miserable and unflinchingly human. The models were actors but Degas convinces us that they are real people, living real and very ordinary lives. The painting was hissed at in Christie's when it went up... [read full story]