Edgar Degas
(1834-1917)

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Edgar Degas, (Hilaire Germain) was a French painter, draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor.  Degas was a prominent member of the Impressionist group, but he stood somewhat apart from the other members, partly because he was interested in drawing and did not share the Impressionists’ fascination with natural light and atmosphere and partly because he was primarily a figure painter and had no interest in landscape (the archetypal Impressionist subject).  His innovative compositions, skilful draughtsmanship, and perceptive analysis of movement make him one of the masters of modern art of the late 19th century.

• France 1960.  Edgar Degas, engraved after a contemporary photograph. 

Degas was born into a well-to-do banking family on July 19, 1834, in Paris. He studied at the École des Beaux-Arts under a disciple of the famous French classicist Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, where Degas developed the great drawing ability that was to be a salient characteristic of his art. 

After 1865, under the influence of the budding impressionist movement, he gave up academic subjects to turn to contemporary themes. But, unlike the impressionists, he preferred to work in the studio and was uninterested in the study of natural light that fascinated them. He was attracted by theatrical subjects, and most of his works depict racecourses, theaters, cafés, music halls, or boudoirs. 

• Italy 1987. "The Absinth Drinker". The models for this café couple were Degas’ two friends, copper engraver Marcellin Desboutin (1823-1902) and actress Ellen Andrée. 

• North Korea 1984. "Racecourse in front of the Tribune". (1869-1872). Orsay Museum, Paris. 

• Rwanda 1980. "Three Dancers in the Wardrobe". (1879). Pastel on Carton. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. 

Degas was a keen observer of humanity -- particularly of women, with whom his work is preoccupied -- and in his portraits as well as in his studies of dancers, milliners, and laundresses, he cultivated a complete objectivity, attempting to catch his subjects in poses as natural and spontaneous as those recorded in action photographs. 

• Monaco 1974.  Edgar Degas: "Dancing Lesson" (fragment) (1873-76).

• France 1970.  Edgar Degas:  "Ballerina" (fragment) (1877). 

• Monaco 1984.  Edgar Degas:  "Lady with Porcelain Vase" (1872). 

Degas is usually classed with the impressionists, and he exhibited with them in seven of the eight impressionist exhibitions. However, his training in classical drafting and his dislike of painting directly from nature produced a style that represented a related alternative to impressionism. 

His study of Japanese prints led him to experiment with unusual visual angles and asymmetrical compositions. His subjects often appear cropped at the edges, as in Ballet Rehearsal (1876, Glasgow Art Galleries and Museum). In Woman with Chrysanthemums (1865, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City), the female subject of the picture is pushed into a corner of the canvas by the large central bouquet of flowers. 

In the 1880s, when his eyesight began to fail, Degas began increasingly to work in two new media that did not require intense visual acuity: sculpture and pastel.  In his sculpture, as in his paintings, he attempted to catch the action of the moment, and his ballet dancers and female nudes are depicted in poses that make no attempt to conceal their subjects' physical exertions.  Fujeira 1972. "The Morning Bath" (1890). Pastel on Carton. The Art Institute of Chicago. Fujeira 1972. "Woman washing her right Thigh". (1886). Pastel on Carton. Galleria Nazionale d'Arte, Rome.

His pastels are usually simple compositions containing only a few figures. He was obliged to depend on vibrant colors and meaningful gestures rather than on precise lines and careful detailing, but, in spite of such limitations, these works are eloquent and expressive and have a simple grandeur unsurpassed by any of his other works. This is well illustrated in the simplicity of composition on the two below drawings, scanned from contemporary postcards. 

• Edgar Degas. "Dancer Stretching".

• Edgar Degas. "Dancer Standing". 

Famous and revered, Degas died in Paris on 27th September 1917, and is buried in the Cimetière de Montmartre, Paris. He left more than 2,000 oil paintings and pastels, and 150 sculptures, the latter unsurprisingly mostly depicting race horses and dancers. 

Sources and Links: 

• Microsoft Encarta 2002.

• Wikipedia about Degas.

• Online Gallery of Degas-Paintings 

Other Impressionist painters on this site (in alphabetical order). 

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