Artist, for example, in sad disarray (5)
I believe the answer is:
degas
'artist' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'example in sad disarray' is the wordplay.
'example' becomes 'eg'.
'in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'disarray' indicates an anagram.
'sad' is an anagram of 'das'.
'eg' going into 'das' is 'DEGAS'.
'for' is the link.
(Other definitions for degas that I've seen before include "Edgar ---, ballet-dancer painter" , "French artist known for his ballet scenes, d.1917" , "Edgar ---, Fr. impressionist" , "He painted dancers" , "Edgar -, French impressionist" .)