The Evolution of Style—And Prices

Edgar Degas
Even the portrait below by a 21-year-old Degas, when his ambition was to be a history painter, has the unfinished, extemporaneous quality that characterizes his later off-kilter compositions of dancers and other scenes of contemporary life.

EARLY: "Portrait de René de Gas," c. 1855. Sold for $204,000 at Christie’s New York in May 2007.

LATE: "Trois danseuses jupes violettes," c. 1896. Sold for £4.2 million ($8.2 million) at Sotheby’s London in February 2007.

Christie’s