Birth Year : 1834
Death Year : 1917
Country : France
Edgar Degas, an Impressionist more interested in movement than in color,
was born in Paris, the son of a banker who wished him to go into business.
Degas, therefore, did not begin to study art until he was twenty-one. He
studied the work of Clouet and Poussin
at the Louvre, and after a year, he went to Italy and studied the art of
the Middle Ages and of the Renaissance. His greatest early admiration was
for Ingres and until he
met Manet and the Impressionists, Degas
painted quite classical historical works. Once Degas joined the Impressionists,
Degas changed his subject matter, painting racetrack scenes sketched from
life and finished in his studio, theatrical and ballet scenes, and many
pictures of women. He worked in many different mediums and concentrated
upon the portrayal of movement that hints toward the action immediately
preceding and immediately following that of the moment captured by his
rapid pencil or brush.
His skill as a draughtsman was extraordinary
and his paintings have the feeling of immediacy that is usually associated
with the camera. Degas also discarded classical rules of composition and
frequently used an oblique angle with light coming from below to create
a new type of theatrically focused space. In his oils, he applied his color
in translucent cross-hatching and for his pastels used a technique in which
color was applied in many successive layers, each layer except the last
fixed to give a powdery, soft effect that was particularly effective in
his ballet scenes. Stories of Degas' sharp tongue and crustiness abound-he
was a solitary misogynist-but his personality is of little importance in
comparison to his art. His hundreds of dancers-in oils, pastels, tempera,
gouache, charcoal, pencil and bronze-are revelations of human movement;
his horses seem alive; and his studies of women at work, bathing, or in
cafes, have a sense of reality that is both emotional and intellectual.
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Edgar
Degas
After
the Bath
Edgar
Degas
Dancing
Class, The
Edgar
Degas
Absinth
Drinker
Edgar
Degas
Two
Dancers
Edgar
Degas
Danseuse
Assis
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