Edgar Degas

{1843-1917)

"The Outsider"

Born on July 19, 1843, in Paris, France, Edgar Degas became one of the most prominent artists of the 19th century. His family was rather successful, attaining high-ranking business and banking positions both in Italy and the United States. Although intended for law, Degas grew bored with the subject and diverted his attention to art. At age 19 he decided to enlist in the École des Beaux-Arts which began his profession as an artist. Degas became a pupil of Louis Lamothe, a disciple of the famous French classicist Jean-August-Domonique Ingres whom Degas greatly admired. It is reputed that it was Ingres’s advice that served as the foundation of Degas’s belief that drawing ‘wide and continuing’ lines should be the basis for all artistic composition.

Degas eventually grew tired with the academy and instead began to work privately in his own studio. As a young man he seemed to have wanted to prevail as an artist of traditional themes. He visited Florence, Assisi, Rome, and Naples copying the works of artists such as Andrea Mantegna, Sandro Botticelli, Hans Holbein the Younger, and Nicolas Poussin. It was while he was travelling in Italy when he painted his famous portrait “The Bellelli Family” as he stayed with his relatives. Degas produced many other wonderful family portraits before 1860 yet they unquestionably incorporated the rigid culture of the mid 19th-century. The “Portrait of the Duchess of Morbilli” is an example of one such painting.

It was after 1861, when Degas seemed to have lost interest in historical paintings. In his painting “Semiramis Founding Babylon” he portrayed his subjects in the fast paced city life of Paris. This change in style was most likely influenced by contemporaries such as Courbet, Édouard Manet, and in the late 1850’s, by the discovery of Japanese graphic art. His study of Japanese prints, especially, allowed him to experiment with irregular arrangements and unusual visual angles. In “Women with Chrysanthemums,” which he painted in 1865, the female subject is pushed into a corner of the painting near the large central bouquet of flowers.

Degas is often classed with other impressionist. His wish to move the artistic expression towards modernism was quite similar to the goals of other impressionists. This is why he exhibited seven out of the eight impressionist exhibitions. But Degas was quite unlike them. He preferred to work in artificial light while the other impressionists worked “en plein air.” It was theatrical subjects that enticed him, and most of his works depict racecourses, cafés, theaters, or music halls. He enjoyed the freedom the indoors gave him to change the subjects and modify their positions at his will. Most of all, Degas never really wanted to detach himself from the past completely. Instead he strived to link the “old” with the “new.” For that reason Degas viewed himself as more of a “realist” than an “impressionist,” and at the Eighth impressionist exhibition, held in 1886, he wanted it to be labeled as an “Exhibition of a group of independent, realist and impressionist artists.”

In the 1880’s, with failing eyesight, Degas began to work with sculpture and pastel, both not requiring intense visual activity. His sculptures appear to capture his subjects spontaneously and the movements of his figures appear to move effortlessly. His pastels were usually rather simple, containing few subjects. His eyesight, or rather lack of, forced him to use vibrant colors and profound gestures instead of detailed lines. Despite the limitations Degas faced, his later works contain an elegant and meaningful magnificence incomparable to any of his other works. It was not until after his death in Paris on September 27, 1917 that his true artistic greatness became apparent.

In Europe, the 19th century was an age of radical change during which the modern world took shape. In a world that was experiencing a population explosion of unparalleled magnitude, revolution followed revolution, a pattern punctuated by counterrevolution and conservative reaction. This was the era in whcih teh modern nation-state and accompanying ideas of nationalism were born. European governments extended their rule to virtually every part of the globe, spreading their influences across the seas. The formation of empires abroad was supported by the enthusiasm of popular nationalism at home, and patriotism and imperialism went hand in hand.

The Duke and Duchess Morbilli, approx. 1865, oil on canvas, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

The Bellelli Family, 1859-60, oil on canvas, Musée d'Orsay, Paris.

Young Spartans, 1860, Art Institute of Chicago.

Self-Portrait, approx. 1863, oil on canvas, Museu Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon.

David & Goliath, 1864, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.

Madame Valpinçon with Chrysanthemums, 1865, oil on canvas, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Racehorses in Front of the Grandstand, 1866-68, oil on paper on canvas, Musée d'Orsay at Paris.

The Rape, approx. 1868-69, oil on canvas, Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Portrait of Hortense Valpinçon, 1869-1871, oil on canvas, Minneapolis Institute of Arts.

The Orchestra of the Opéra, approx. 1870, oil on canvas, Musée d'Orsay at Paris.

Dance Class, approx. 1871, oil on wood, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

The Star, 1871-81, pastel on paper, The Art Institute of Chicago.

aux Courses en Province (At the Races in the Country), 1872, Museum of Fine-Arts at Boston.

The Dance Examination, pastel, Denver Art Museum.

[Home][Masaccio] [Jan Van Eyck][Albrecht Durer][Caravaggio][Johannes Vermeer][Diego Velazquez][Jean Ingres] [Francisco Goya][Jean Pierre Renoir][Edgar Degas][Cezanne][Henri Matisse] [Piet Mondrian]