Much of what Edgar Degas knew about photography was learned from the owner of an art supply shop named Guilhermo Carlos Tasset. Degas bought his camera supplies from Tasset and looked to him for technical advice. As a recognized dealer, Tasset kept up with the developments of photography he sold and was also a painter himself. Degas thus respected Tasset and had often had his negatives enlarged and printed in his shop. As a color merchant, however, Tasset did not have a very extensive background in photography and did not have great darkroom techniques.
It is not certain which of Degas’ negatives he developed and printed himself, and which he had done in Tasset’s shop. Even when Degas did the work himself, however, he was using the techniques he learned from Tasset. The poor quality of many of Degas’ photographs could therefore be blamed on Tasset. The glass negatives of the dancers, for instance, are of strikingly red and yellow colors. This was the result of uncontrollable chemical changes during development. There were no prints of dancers found in Degas’ studio, but many of the other prints that were found were poorly washed and show visible streaks of silver salt.
One potential reason for Degas’ rejection of photography that was explored in my paper was Degas’ great skill at sketching. If Degas had been a better photographer, this would not have been such as important an issue. If he had received better technical advice, maybe he would have been able to capture more detail in his photographs, and they would have served him better as an aid. Perhaps if Degas had gone to a shop other than Tasset’s, he would have continued to use photography as an aid to painting, and his artwork would have developed differently than it did.