While he respected the tradition of the old Masters, Degas drew his inspiration from scenes of modern Paris, especially the ballet dancers of the Paris Opera.
Centering and displacing his models and representation of space, figures are often deliberately cut off by the edge of the picture.
His numerous ballet scenes demonstrate his other tendency to endlessly repeat themes

Degas: "one must paint the same subject 10 times, 100 times"

Laundresses, dancers and cabaret singers whom he loved to paint and draw had a reputation for loose morals, so his pictures were though shocking by both the general public and his family.

KEY WORKS
Madame Rene de Gas
Four Dancers
Girl Drying Herself
Young Spartans 1854-1859: - Tate Gallery London
The Dance Foyer at the Opera 1872: LOUVRE Paris
The Dance Class 1874: MUSEE d'ORSAY Paris
Woman Drying Herself 1903: THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO
Dancers in Pink MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS BOSTON
Woman Arranging Her Hair Ordrupgaard-Samlingen Copenhagen
Dancers in the Foyer THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO
The Repetition Burrell Collection Glasgow
Jockeys National Gallery of Canada Ottawa
After the Bath Bridgestone Museum of Art Tokyo
The Rehearsal of a Ballet MUSEE d'ORSAY Paris
Nursemaids Norton-Simon Museum Pasadena /
The Bellelli Family 1858 - MUSEE d'ORSAY Paris
L'Absinthe 1876 - MUSEE d'ORSAY Paris
The Tub 1886 - MUSEE d'ORSAY Paris/
The Ballet from "Robert le Diable"- 1872 - THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART NEW YORK