Edgar Degas and artworks

By Jp. A. Calosse

Degas was a French artist famous for his work in painting, sculpture, printmaking, and drawing. His career was long and his style, unlike that of most famous artists who worked into their old age, never ceased developing. He is regarded as one of the founders of Impressionism and is especially identified with the subject of dance (over half of his works depict dancers such as The Dance Class or the sculpture Little Ballet Dancer). These display his mastery in the depiction of movement, as do his less common themes of horse racing and female nudes (After the Bath). His portraits are considered to be among the finest in the history of art. His work was strongly influenced by Ingres and Delacroix combining the expressive qualities of Ingres with the colour of Delacroix.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Parkstone International
• Release date: Dec 9, 2019
• ISBN: 9781644618233

Book preview

And even this heart of mine has something artificial. The dancers have sewn it into a bag of pink satin, pink satin slightly faded, like their dancing shoes.

— Edgar Degas

Self-portrait with hat

1857-1858. Oil on canvas on cardboard, 26 x 19 cm. The Sterling and Francine Clark Institute, Williamstown.

Biography

1834: Birth of Hilaire Germain Edgar de Gas, named Degas, in Paris on July 19th. He came from a family that belonged to a large bourgeois bank.

1855: After his classical studies at the Louis-le-Grand High School, he goes to the School of Fine Arts and studies in Lamothe's workshop where he continues the studies of Ingres and Flandrin.

1853-1859: His first works: self-portraits and portraits of his family, as well as a number of copies of paintings found in the Louvre.

1856-1860: In order to prepare for the Prize of Rome, Degas stays in Italy where he discovers and fervently copies the works of the Florentine masters. He reproduces a number of figures from these frescos in pencil and oil. He takes night classes at the Villa Medicis and learns about several painters, one of which is Gustave Moreau. Moreau and Degas become friends.

1858-1859: Degas begins work on a large painting in the manner of Holbein or Van Dyck representing his uncle, aunt and their two little girls. This painting, The Bellelli Family, is one of the masterpieces of Degas' early years.

1860: Degas begins painting portraits that resemble the linearism of Ingres and his historical subjects. (Semiramis Constructing Babylon, 1861).

1860-1862: Degas paints his first horses and quickly becomes interested in dance and the opera. His social environment and his musician friends had led him to discover the artificial and colourful world of the racecourses and the theatre wings. From then on, Degas becomes attached to observing these particular aspects of his environment.

1865: He exhibits for the first time at the Salon with his painting A Scene of War in the Middle Ages.

1872-1873: While on a trip to New Orleans, the home of his maternal family, Degas formulates his artistic project: To render the naturalist movement dignified of the grandes écoles. At the Louvre, Degas had met Edouard Manet, with whom he shared bourgeois tastes and artistic admiration. They were both interested in certain naturalist themes, but Degas relentlessly refused to partake in the cult of the country, the necessity for landscape and the work on this motif.

1878: Degas' mood darkens after the bankruptcy that ruins his family. He pays his debts, but, with his financial pressures, he becomes more pessimistic and irascible than