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Edgar Degas - Modern Artist, par excellence

Edgar Degas (1834-1917) was a original French artist who detoured from the Impressionist style, and experimented with realism, off-center compositions, cropping, color, and form. His favorite subjects included dancers, café life, horses, and women in non-traditional poses (bathing, combing hair and doing laundry). Our SegPlayPC collection contains 25 patterns of his most recognizable works including 'The Bellelli Family', 'In the Orchestra Pit', 'Absinthe', 'Miss Lala at the Circus', 'Women Ironing', 'Race Horses', 'Place de la Concorde', and 'The Tub'.

Edgar Hilaire-Germain Degas (July 19, 1834 - Sept 27, 1917) is regarded as one of the founders of Impressionism. His strong draftsmanship, composition, and superb rendition of movement led to his being considered one of the masters of late 19th century painting.

Degas is best known for his depictions of the ballet and the racecourse, which he produced in a variety of media. Although Degas participated in most of the Impressionist exhibitions, his fascination with rendering the human body in motion and his preference for working in his studio, sets his work apart from the other Impressionist painters.

Edgar Degas was born in Paris, France. His father was a wealthy banker and his mother was an American from New Orleans. His family supported his ambition to be a painter and after leaving school he enrolled in the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, studying under Louis Lamothe, a disciple of the French neoclassical painter Ingres. In 1855 Degas met Ingres, who instilled in the young artist the importance of drawing, and it was during this period that Degas developed the clear, strong outlines that would later be the prominent feature of his works.

In 1856 Degas went to Italy, where he stayed until 1859, copying works by Renaissance masters. When he returned to Paris, he copied paintings in the Louvre and it is while he was copying a Velasquez painting that he med Edouard Manet, who would influence the young Degas to paint contemporary subjects.

Degas exhibited a number of historical paintings in the annual Paris Salon until the late 1860s when, under the influence of other avant-garde artists of the day, his art shifted from the classical, romantic style to depictions of modern, everyday life -- theatrical scenes captured in spontaneous motion. He rendered his subjects in bold brushstrokes and expressive colors influenced by Japanese prints. His new subject matter included ballet dancers, launderesses and racecourse scenes, with the emphasis placed on movement and purity of line, capturing a fleeting moment of spontaneous motion. In this sense, he was a precursor of the snapshot in modern photography.

During the Franco-Prussian war of 1870 Degas took part in the defense of Paris and in 1872 he went to stay with his brother in New Orleans. There he painted The Cotton Exchange at New Orleans, later purchased by a museum during his lifetime.

In 1874 Degas joined the group of artists that came to be known as the Impressionists. The group, which included Monet, Cezanne, Pissarro, Sisley and Morisot, organized alternative exhibitions that were open to all and did not have a jury to assess the works. Although Degas participated in all but one of them, he objected to being classified as an Impressionist.

By the 1880s, Degas was working mainly in pastels, a medium which allowed him to express his mastery of drawing in vibrant colors and simple compositions. These expressive works are considered to be the artist’s finest.

Degas firmly believed that a painter should dedicate himself totally to his art, and therefore could have no personal life. For that reason, he never married and, as the years ticked by, he became isolated. His eyesight began to fail and he turned to sculpture. His subjects continued to be ballet dancers and he tried to freeze their movements in his works. The sculptures were abandoned in his studio, to be cast in bronze only after his death.

In 1912 Edgar Degas was forced to leave his residence due to a demolition order on the building. He stopped working due to poor eyesight and during the last years of his life he wandered the streets of Paris, a lonely, friendless old man who was almost blind.

Degas died in Paris on September 27, 1917. His funeral went almost unobserved and unattended. During his lifetime his work had been both admired and ridiculed. It was only after his death that the true stature of Degas’ work was recognized.

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