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".
Louis Deuchars
Louis Reid Deuchars (1870–1927) was a Scottish artist and sculptor.
Born in Comrie, Perthshire, Scotland, he attended Glasgow School of Art from 1887 to 1888. During his time in the city he was working as a stained-glass painter, possibly for a firm of decorators, such as J & W Guthrie. His series of lithographs, 'Picturesque Glasgow' was published in 'The Bailie' (1893–95). After sending a selection of his drawings to George Frederic Watts, 'England's Michelangelo', Deuchars secured work as an assistant to Watts at Compton, Surrey, England,where he worked on Watts' sculptures "Physical Energy" and "Lord Tennyson". However, his main employment there was as one of the four main workers assisting Mrs Watts, Mary Fraser Tytler, with her Watts Mortuary Chapel from 1895 to 1900. He helped her to run the classes attended by the local villagers, who modelled the decorative terra cotta tiles for the chapel. Then he went on in 1900 to do the same job at the Aldourie Pottery, Dores, her enterprise in the Highlands. It was near her childhood home of Aldourie Castle, Inverness-shire. During his association with the Wattses, he learned how to submit works to major art exhibitions & sold several.