Degas and Van Gogh shared common ground in their disdain for convention, or more to the point, a willingness to circumvent conventional means when necessary, which is to say frequently.
Deattributions often go unnoticed, in large part because nobody wants to publicize them. Conversely, it’s news when an artwork is promoted to the canon of a master.
What is the aesthetic of the ordinary? The desire to capture something small, fleeting, or overlooked, that reveals something larger, intangible and significant.
The necessity to impress patrons tinges everything Sargent painted; ever the master of prestidigitation, even in his relaxed moments he is a thoroughly public artist. No other major painter’s manual dexterity is so central to his identity.