Edgar Degas
Degas's work was controversial, but was generally admired for its draftsmanship. His "La Petite Danseuse de Quatorze Ans", or "Little Dancer of Fourteen Years", which he displayed at the sixth Impressionist exhibition in 1881, was probably his most controversial piece; some critics decried what they thought its "appalling ugliness" while others saw in it a "blossoming". In part Degas' originality consisted in disregarding the smooth, full surfaces and contours of classical sculpture ... [and] in garnishing his little statue with real hair and clothing made to scale like the accoutrements for a doll. These relatively "real" additions heightened the illusion, but they also posed searching questions, such as what can be referred to as "real" when art is concerned. The suite of pastels depicting nudes that Degas exhibited in the eighth Impressionist Exhibition in 1886 produced "the most concentrated body of critical writing on the artist during his lifetime ... The overall reaction was positive and laudatory".
Hieronymus Janssens
Janssens' paintings are often both signed and dated, with dates ranging from 1646 to 1661. Like his teacher van der Laemen he was specialized in dance scenes, set inside a house or on an outside terrace. This is where he got the nickname "Den danser" or "The dancer". These works contributed to the development of the genre of the conversation piece in the Low Countries. His representations of elegant companies and balls and the works of Peter Paul Rubens, in particular his "Garden of Love" (Prado Museum), were significant for the formation of the genre. In this last work, Rubens showed how a garden could be used as a setting for amorous dalliance and courtship.