Add to ORKGDegas\u27 father was a prominent banker. His father and grandfather signed their names *De Gas*, as did the artist until ca. 1870. . The Bellelli Family (Paris, Musee d\u27Orsay). In Paris in 1874, he helped organize the first impressionist exhibition and contributed to all but one of the subsequent group shows, although his many paintings of the ballet and opera, cafe scenes, horse races, and other aspects of metropolitan life are distinct in style and subject matter from the work of his impressionist colleagues. About 1892 Degas began to work primarily in pastels. Plagued by ill health and near blindness after about 1900, his style became increasingly broad, and by 1910 he had ceased working.https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/saskia/4146/thum...