Alexandria White Art 1010 Ms.

Wrathall 11/26/12

Edgar Degas

Edgar Degas is considered one of the greatest leaders of impressionistic art. His works focused on the everyday scenes of his beloved Paris. Degas' style of painting mixed the traditional techniques from the past with the new, fresh style of the impressionists. Many viewed Degas to be a cold, rude, and rather gloomy artist, but he was loyal, humorous, and liked to work in solitude. Degas' work influenced the beginnings of impressionistic art. Degas' masterpieces were created with oil, pastels, charcoal, and crayons but he mainly used oil. He was a perfectionist, often asking for pieces back to rework or perfect them. Rarely was he satisfied with a painting to set it aside and not touch it again. This is why he preferred oil painting because oil paints dry very slowly and are easy to retouch and change. Hilaire-Germain-Edgar Degas, named after his grandfathers, was born on July 19, 1834 in Paris, France. When he was only 13 years old, Degas' mother died. He was then sent off to the most elite boarding school for boys in Paris. His father would take Degas out on Sundays to visit the French National Museum, the Louvre (a prestigious art museum still in operation today), and to explore the excitements of Paris. Degas gained a deep love for art, music, dance, and the life of Parisians during these outings.

A few years later, Edgar enrolled in law school to please his father. He only stayed for the first semester. To the disappointment of his father, Edgar chose to study art at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. While there, he felt he couldn't focus with all of the gossiping and distractions of his fellow students. In furthering his education of art, Degas would go to the Louvre and spend hours copying the artworks of the masters before him, studying every detail and every technique. His reason for doing so was, "Let me get it well into my head that I know nothing at all. That's the only way to make progress." Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres was among the artists Degas admired most. Ingres was a legendary classical artist. His focus was to draw with preciseness. When Degas met him, Ingres instructed him, "Draw lines, young man, lots of lines, either from memory or from nature." Degas took this advice to heart and practiced until his lines were defined with exactness. Trying to gain his father's approval, Degas moved to Italy in 1856 where his dear Aunt Laura and her family lived. He made many sketches of his two nieces, Aunt Laura, and her husband. He sent these elaborate sketches to his father which proved he was serious. His father was supportive of his work from then on. Finally, Edgar put together the famous painting, The Bellelli Family. In The Bellelli Family, Degas not only wanted to portray the physical features of his subjects, but also their character and situations. He painted his Aunt Laura in black mourning clothes with a sad, distant look on her face. This portrays the grief and anguish she is feeling from her father's recent death, whose portrait is placed boldly on the wall. Tucked behind Laura is a white bassinet, signifying her pregnancy. The girl with her hands on her hips, Giulia, suggests her annoyance with her strict mother. On the mantel sits a simple, white, unlit candle,

matching the same simplicity of Giulia's outstretched leg. The daughters form a triangle with their mother, secluding their glaring father. This oil on canvas portrait shows the unhappiness and the hardships the Bellelli family went through while living in exile for 9 years. Degas did a marvelous job of showing how this family really was. Edgar Degas moved back to Paris in 1865 and bought his own studio in Montmartre. While there, Degas met Edouard Manet, an unlikely best friend. Manet was an arrogant, independent artist with a realistic style. He introduced Degas to a group of more independent artists who soon formed their own exhibition called the French Impressionists. These Impressionists included the following: Camille Pissarro, Paul Cezanne, Auguste Renoir, and Claude Monet. All these artists, including Degas, had a desire to paint things in modern life, instead of the historical scenes that were popular at the time. One aspect that set Degas apart from these artists was that they all preferred to paint on site, with no sketches, very spontaneous looking and he liked to observe, draw detailed sketches, then retire to his quiet studio to produce the actual painting. "You reproduce only what has stuck you, what is essential; in that way your memories and your imagination are liberated from the tyranny that nature holds over them." This was Degas' argument for painting in solitude. I admire this about Degas. I feel that some artists get caught up in all the specific details that do not exactly flow with the painting and can be distracting. This form of painting shows exactly what you want the beholder to see and focuses on one particular thing. Degas loved Paris and its alluring excitements such as the opera, ballet, and horse races. His best works are of ballerinas and equestrians. Degas was fascinated by the movement of both dancers and horses. In painting the horse races, he liked to focus on the horses' gestures, the color in the Jockey outfits, the pleasure of the audience, and the anxiety before the action. If you

said Edgar Degas today, ballerina almost always follows. He had such an admiration for these hardworking women. Degas would sit in on their rehearsals and sketch, he sympathized with their exhaustion from the control and repetition all artists have to practice and felt a need to portray that side of ballerinas. Rarely did Edgar paint the actual performance of the ballerinas. He liked to paint the before nerves, preparation, and normality of a dancer's life. In Dancers, Pink and Green, Degas used his favorite poses of dancers waiting backstage before the performance starts. The dancer to the far right peaks through at the crowded audience which has been reduced to red and orange boxes to focus only on the dancers. The other dancers are fiddling with their hair, adjusting a strap, and turning out their heels. Hidden next to the large wall, stands a silhouetted man with a top hat. This represents the season ticket holders that were allowed backstage to observe the dancers, ask questions, and basically just get in the way. The background shows the nature scene of the ballet about to be performed. The reoccurring colors of this oil on canvas tie this piece together nicely. An interesting feature of this painting is the hard, noticeable charcoal outlines of the figures. Degas purposely added this element to make the painting seem spontaneous and to draw the viewer backstage with the dancers, even though he spent hours drawing detailed sketches and reworking different parts of the painting. Degas hated to part with any of his paintings. He would often ask for a painting back from a friend he had given it to so he could rework and make changes. He was very much of a perfectionist. But in 1874, his father passed away leaving behind a clutter of financial affairs to be sorted out. As Degas took responsibility, he was forced to sell his paintings for the first time in his life. Because of this, his ballet paintings became more popular and desirable. Degas slowly went blind in his later years, eventually turning to sculpting because he could see better with his hands than with his eyes at this point. He became ill and was bed-

ridden until he passed away on September 27, 1917. He left behind an exuberant amount of marvelous works of art which included over fifteen thousand paintings of ballerinas. Hilaire-Germain-Edgar Degas influenced the world of art immensely. He demonstrated that you can mix realism, classism, romanticism, and impressionism all in one. His paintings have great detail yet also have a dreamlike look to them. He took a vast deal of time exacting his drawings just to make them look spontaneous, fresh, and new. Degas will always be known as the painter of dancers. His work was the first to show dancers in their classroom, rehearsing feverishly. Degas made the public see how hard ballerinas had to work for just a small amount of money. I appreciate this about Degas, being a dancer myself, because I feel like we ballerinas, just as any other artist, are underestimated for how much work and effort is actually put into our practices.

Bibliography
1. Meyer, Susan E. First Impressions: Edgar Degas New York: A Times Mirror Company, 1994. Call no. y709.2 Mey 2. Rubin, Susan Goldman Degas and the Dance New York: Harry N. Abrams Inc., 2002 Call no. J92Degas 3. Muhlberger, Richard What Makes a Degas a Degas? New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Penguin Books USA Inc., 1993. Call no. Y759.4Muhlberger