Despite Degas’ effort to keep his private prejudices out of his art, the progression of his anti-Semitism from a corrosive political belief to a maniacal hatred is plainly traceable from his realistic but politically-motivated depiction of Ludovic Halévy in Friends in the Wings to his stereotypical and insulting sketches of Halévy in the Cardinal monotypes. But if Degas no longer saw his friend as an individual when he painted the monotypes, why did he paint a realistic representation of Halévy and his son in Six Friends of the Artist two years later? While Degas did not exaggerate their Semitic features in the group portrait, the deeper message in his final painting of Halévy shows the full depth of his anti-Semitism. Degas calls Halévy his friend in the title of the work, but at the same time declares in indelible paint that he is ready to turn his back on their friendship. Four of the painting’s subjects are deliberately turned away from Ludovic and Daniel Halévy. On the left side of the large canvas, an English painter has his back to them. Opposite him, two French artists turn their backs as well. In the lower right corner, Albert Boulanger-Cavé, Halévy’s companion in Portrait of Friends in the Wings, carefully looks away. Degas composed Six Friends of the Artist to demonstrate that England, France and even friends had forsaken the Halévys, and he made the statement even more vicious by painting them without anti-Semitic stereotypes. With his accurate portrayal of Halévy, Degas indicated that he was ready to turn his back, not on a generic, nameless Jew, but on his oldest friend, Ludovic Halévy.
Despite the pointed message in Six Friends of the Artist, Degas remained in contact with Halévy until the height of the Dreyfus Affair. Both men were forced to choose sides when Colonel Alfred Dreyfus was convicted of treason on clearly false evidence and the country was split along the fault lines of prejudice that had been developing for a generation (Derfler). 
Halévy claimed his position as a leading member of Paris’ Jewish community and outspoken supporter of Dreyfus, and Degas joined the radical anti-Dreyfusards, calling for the collective punishment of all Jews. The conflict divided French society and ended the fifty-year friendship between Degas and Halévy. While the two men tried to be civil, the strain became too much for Degas after an awkward dinner with the Halévys and their pro-Dreyfusard guests. Daniel Halévy described the night in his journal, writing, “Last night…our friendship was to end suddenly and in silence…Not a word came from those closed lips, and at the end of dinner Degas disappeared” (Halévy, 100-101). As Daniel recounted with bewilderment, after that evening, Degas never spoke to Halévy again. In the end, the private painter could not master the art of friendship.
top right: Degas, Edgar. Six Friends of the Artist. Rhode Island School of Design Museum of Art, Providence, Rhode Island.
left: Photograph of Ludovic Halévy. From Halévy, Daniel. My Friend Degas. Trans. Mina Curtiss. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1964.
bottom right: Bartholomé, Paul. Photograph of Edgar Degas. From Halévy, Daniel. My Friend Degas. Trans. Mina Curtiss. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1964.