|
Edgar Degas (France) 1834- |  ARTIST PROFILE
French painter and sculptor, whose innovative composition, skillful drawing, and perceptive analysis of movement made him one of the masters of modern art in the late 19th century.
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.
Degas was born into a well-to-do banking family on July 19, 1834, in Paris. He studied at the ?cole 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, caf?s, music halls, or boudoirs. 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.
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. 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.
Degas was not well known to the public, and his true artistic
stature did not become evident until after his death. He died in Paris on September 27, 1917.
"Degas, (Hilaire Germain) Edgar," Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2001
http://encarta.msn.com © 1997-2001 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
|
RELATED EXHIBITIONS
 Dayton : The Triumph of French Painting. Masterpieces from Ingres to Matisse
Madrid : Form and the Classical Ideal in Modern Art
Munich : The Rau collection featuring masterpieces from Fra Angelico to Bonnard
New York : The Annenberg Collection of Impressionist and Postimpressionist Masterpieces
Portland : Degas, Rodin, and Moore. Bronzes by European Masters
Poughkeepsie, NY : From Manet to Picasso, Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Prints and Drawings
The Hague : The Time of Degas
Washington : A Century of Drawing - Works on Paper from Degas to LeWitt
Washington : Impressionist Still Life
Washington : The Unfinished Print, featuring works by Degas, Rembrandt, Munch, Gauguin and others
|
|
ARTIST WORKS
|
thumbnail
click for full size |
WORK DETAILS |
 | |
 | | Title: | Dancer with Bouquet | | Medium: | ~1878, dimensions 72?77cm, Oil on canvas | | Exhibited at: | Musee d'Orsay | |
|
 | | Title: | Dancer with Bouquet | | Medium: | 1878, dimensions 58?42cm, Oil on canvas | | Exhibited at: | Musee d'Orsay | |
|
 | | Title: | Gentlemen's Race | | Medium: | 1862, dimensions 48?61cm, Oil on canvas | | Exhibited at: | Musee d'Orsay | |
|
 | | Title: | Miss Lala at the Circus Fernando | | Medium: | 1879, dimensions 117?77cm, Oil on canvas | | Exhibited at: | National Gallery, London | |
|
 | | Title: | Musicians in the Orchestra | | Medium: | 1871, dimensions 69?49cm, Oil on canvas | | Exhibited at: | | |
|
 | | Title: | Race Horses in Front of the Stands | | Medium: | 1869, dimensions 46?61cm, Oil on canvas | | Exhibited at: | Musee d'Orsay | |
|
 | | Title: | Rehearsal of a Ballet on Stage | | Medium: | 1874, dimensions 65?81cm, Oil on canvas | | Exhibited at: | Musee d'Orsay | |
|
 | | Title: | The Absinth Drinker | | Medium: | 1876, dimensions 92?68cm, Oil on canvas | | Exhibited at: | Musee d'Orsay | |
|
 | | Title: | The Bellelli Family | | Medium: | 1860, dimensions 200?250cm, Oil on canvas | | Exhibited at: | Musee d'Orsay | |
|
|
17 Records Found!
|
|
|
|
|
|
Add to Favorites
Read/Write Review
Related Works