We know that he was sociable widely curious about art that he was a collector and receptive to new inventions in particular

We know that he was sociable, widely curious about art, that he was a collector and receptive to new inventions, in particular the camera And it can be proved that these things affected Degas's art. But we now suspect that they were part of the artist's self-examination. The National Gallery presents Degas in his final years as an other-worldly obsessive. The result is magnificent and more than a little strange The motifs are highly recognisable.

The same ground is covered, with about the same number of exhibits, in the National Gallery's "Degas: Beyond Impressionism" But the intention and effect are different. The Met's interpretation gave a coda to a life whose achievements were somewhat in the past. This part of the show contained about 100 works in all media. The last major Degas exhibition was organised by New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1988.

It was an enormous retrospective covering the whole length of the artist's career, from his first self-portrait of 1855 through the years of innovation to the last Impressionist Exhibition of 1886. Then it had a section on Degas's late years from 1890 to 1912. "Experience passes through you [and] you have to try and digest it in some way, assimilate it - and then let it pass." Then Chadwick blushed slightly, and laughed her throaty Croydon laugh: "If you see what I mean..."! BBC2 is reshowing Helen Chadwick's film on Frida Kahlo, Mon 11.15pm.. Too young and daring in the Eighties, too old and established in the Nineties, she just worked on: "I don't think you can come up with some culminating verdict or understanding," she said in 1992, ending a documentary she presented about Frida Kahlo, the visionary but crippled Mexican artist.

The pathologist suggested a link to her heart attack but declared no proof. Chadwick's friends always come back to tiredness, then remember that busy people don't all fall down dead. Then there is the explanation no one welcomes: malign chance.Perhaps this uncertainty is appropriate. Unlike some of the artists who followed her, focusing hard on the rise in their trajectories, Helen Chadwick never thought too much about definite achievements or final reputation. On her frantic final day, it may have acted.Then again, no one really knows.