"In defending it too much, we might end up compromising this group, which is attacked with the same arguments that were used
against Corot and many others. Might not Degas become classic some day? No one can express with a surer hand the feeling of
modern elegance. He knows how to see and to make others see a horse race, the jockeys welded to their saddles, the excited crowd,
the horses at the gate.... Moreover, this is a man whose capacity for observation, artistic subtlety, and taste reveal themselves
in even his smallest works."
[Philippe Burty], La Republique Francaise, 25 April 1874
"In general his colour is a little muted, except for a small painting, Aux courses en province, which has exquisite
colour, draftsmanship, exactness of pose, and accuracy of execution."
Ernest Chesneau, Paris-Journal, 7 May 1874
"Degas is strange and sometimes goes as far as being bizarre. Horses, ballerinas, and laundresses-these are his favorite
subjects, and of all the things that surround him, they seem to preoccupy him exclusively. But what precision there is to his
drawing, and what pleasing accord in his colours!"
[Jules-Antoine] Castagnary, Le Siecle, 29 April 1874
Edgar Degas, (1834 -1917), reflects a concern for the psychology of movement and expression and the
harmony of line and continuity of contour.
These characteristics set Degas apart from the other impressionist painters, although he took part in
all but one of the 8 impressionist exhibitions between 1874 and 1886. Degas was the son of a wealthy banker, and his
aristocratic family background instilled into his early art a haughty yet sensitive quality of detachment. As he grew
up, his idol was the painter Jean Auguste Ingres, whose example pointed him in the direction of a classical
draftsmanship, stressing balance and clarity of outline. After beginning his artistic studies with Louis Lamothes, a
pupil of Ingres, he started classes at the Ecole des Beaux Arts but left in 1854 and went to Italy. He stayed there for
5 years, studying Italian art, especially Renaissance works.
Returning to Paris in 1859, he painted portraits of his family and friends and a number of historical
subjects, in which he combined classical and romantic styles. In Paris, Degas came to know Édouard Manet, and in the
late 1860s he turned to contemporary themes, painting both theatrical scenes and portraits with a strong emphasis on
the social and intellectual implications of props and settings.
In the early 1870s the female ballet dancer became his favorite theme. He sketched from a live model
in his studio and combined poses into groupings that depicted rehearsal and performance scenes in which dancers on
stage, entering the stage, and resting or waiting to perform are shown simultaneously and in counterpoint, often from
an oblique angle of vision. On a visit in 1872 to Louisiana, where he had relatives in the cotton business, he painted
The Cotton Exchange at New Orleans (finished 1873; Musée Municipal, Pau, France), his only picture to be acquired by a
museum in his lifetime. Other subjects from this period include the racetrack, the beach, and cafe
interiors.
After 1880, Pastel became Degas's preferred medium. He used sharper colours and gave greater attention
to surface patterning, depicting milliners, laundresses, and groups of dancers against backgrounds now only sketchily
indicated. For the poses, he depended more and more on memory or earlier drawings. Although he became guarded and
withdrawn late in life, Degas retained strong friendships with literary people. In 1881 he exhibited a sculpture,
Little Dancer (a bronze casting of which is in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston), and as his eyesight failed thereafter
he turned increasingly to sculpture, modeling figures and horses in wax over metal armatures. These sculptures remained
in his studio in disrepair and were cast in bronze only after his death
Biography courtesy of Web Museum Paris.
Edgar Degas, 1834 -1917,
He took part in all but one of the eight impressionist exhibitions between 1874 and 1886. Degas was the son of a
wealthy banker, and his aristocratic family background instilled into his early art a haughty yet sensitive quality of
aloofness. As he matured he amired the work of painter Jean Auguste Ingres, whose example pointed him in the direction of a
classical art. After beginning his artistic studies with Louis Lamothes, a pupil of Ingres, he started classes at the Ecole
des Beaux Arts but left in 1854 and went to Italy. He stayed there for 5 years, studying Italian art, especially
Renaissance works.
Upon returning to Paris in 1859, he painted in a classical come romantic style portraits of his family and friends
and a number of historical subjects, In Paris cafe's Degas meet Édouard Manet who was a great influence on many
impressionist artist, and in the late 1860s he turned to contemporary themes, painting both theatrical scenes and portraits
with a strong emphasis on the social and intellectual aspects of life.
In the early 1870s the female ballet dancer became his now famous subjects. He sketched from a live model in his
studio and composed into groupings that depicted rehearsal and performance scenes, entering the stage, and resting or
waiting to perform are shown simultaneously, often from an deviate angle. On a visit to family in 1872 to Louisiana,, he
painted The Cotton Exchange at New Orleans (1873; Musée Municipal, Pau, France), his only picture to be acquired by a
museum in his lifetime. Other subjects from this period include the racetrack, the beach, and cafe
interiors.
After 1880, Pastel became Degas's preferred medium. He used sharper colours and gave greater attention to surface patterning,
depicting milliners, laundresses, and groups of dancers against backgrounds now only sketchily indicated. For the poses, he
depended more and more on memory or earlier drawings. Although he became guarded and withdrawn late in life, Degas retained
strong friendships with literary people. In 1881 he exhibited a sculpture, Little Dancer (a bronze casting of which is in the
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston), and as his eyesight failed thereafter he turned increasingly to sculpture, modeling figures and
horses in wax over metal armatures. These sculptures remained in his studio and were cast in bronze after his death in
1917.
Top Sellers Art, Architecture books
|
Browse Art, Architecture & Photography books Amazon books have over 9 million titles to
choose from in new & future releases, paperbacks & hardback. Below a list of book categories:
Unlike most
Impressionists, Degas never worked from nature. “Art is not a sport,” wrote this cool, cynical
intellectual, the very image of the Paris dandy. Instead, he roamed behind the scenes of such popular city
haunts as the opera, ballet, and racetrack. In this scene from the then-popular Robert Le Diable (Robert the Devil) opera, the spirits of dead nuns who
have broken their vows dance wildly in a ghostly moonlit cloister, hoping to lure the hero Robert to
damnation. Painting from an audience member’s view-point, Degas is more interested in what is going on at
the edge of the theater’s orchestra pit than on the stage. Several musicians and audience members are
painted as portraits of Degas’ opera-loving friends. Viewing this painting, we can almost reach out and
touch the slicked-down hair of the man in the right foreground,
as he and the gentlemen near him look in every direction except toward the stage. What or who is the
bearded man with the opera glasses (far left) eyeing? The painting’s focus is a far cry from the moralizing
themes of French Academy art. Perhaps Degas was making fun of this heavy, melo- dramatic opera, with its
ties to a traditional, Romantic past that the Impressionists wanted to escape.
Style
The daring
composition (like a photograph taken by someone in the audience) shows how photography influenced the
Impressionists. As they gaze toward the painting’s edges, Degas’ subjects seem to say that life goes on
outside this painting. The artist often made quick, location sketches with “essence”‑ oil paint thinned
with turpentine ‑ and then painted a finished work in his studio. Like other Impressionists, Degas was
fascinated with light, but he preferred artificial light to the en plein air kind. Notice how this painting’s three light sources
create different moods: the bright lamps lighting the musicians’ scores, the eerie cast of footlights
on the per- formers and the moonlight created by gas lights over the stage. “The fascinating thing,”
Degas said, “is not to show the source of light, but the effect of light.”
Artist
To Degas, a
painting was “something which requires as much knavery, trickery, and deceit as the perpetration of a
crime.” In his studio, Degas loved to experiment with composition and light, but unlike most
Impressionists, he often painted from memory or imagination. He also worked in a variety of materials,
including pastel, pastel-paint combinations, and sculpture. When a financial crisis forced him to sell
his work in the mid-1870s, he turned to monotype prints (made by applying coloured or black paint to a
metal plate) which could be turned out quickly. However, he continued to paint until his eyesight grew
too weak at the end of his life.
Acknowledgements
Impressionism: Paintings Collected by European Museums
is organized by the High Museum of Art, Atlanta, in collaboration
with the Denver Art Museum and the Seattle Art Museum.
|
|
