Look closely when you visit Taking Shape: Degas as Sculptor at the Norton Simon. On display is the Museum’s entire collection of modèles, bronzes cast from Degas’ original wax and plaster statuettes, plus pastels, drawings and paintings from the artist.

Lean in and you can see Degas’ own fingerprints in a dancer’s tutu, or an out-of-place shape in the base of a statue where the cork Degas stuffed inside wire armatures to give them shape had poked out and was captured in bronze. We spoke to exhibition curator Emily Talbot about why this exhibition rewards close attention.