Edgar Degas

Edgar Degas, one of France's most important artists who was an apprentice of Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, became "the most reflecting, the most demanding, the most Merciless draftsman in the world," according to his contemporaries. He is regarded as one of the founders of Impressionism. He was born Hilaire Germain Edgar Degas on July 19, 1834, in Paris, France. He was the eldest of five children in the family of Celestine Musson De Gas and Augustin De Gas, a banker of aristocratic extraction. As a young man he abandoned the pretentious spelling of the family name and called himself Degas.

From 1845-1853 he attended Lycee Louis-le-Grand, graduating in 1853 with baccalaureate in literature, then studied law for one year.

During the 1850s and 1860s he made over 700 copies of the Renaissance and Classical art by Italian and French masters. He seriously studied drawing and eventually became one of the best draftsmen ever. He also became influenced by photography as well as by Japanese prints.

In 1855 he met Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres. Degas took advise from Ingres and followed by copying the master's drawing technique and style. "Study lines, draw lots of lines" said Ingres to Degas who eventually became a passionate collector of Ingres's art. Drawing became central to Degas's artistic practice from the beginning of his career. He developed a rigorous drawing style inspired by the crisp linearity and graceful forms of works by Ingres, whose draftsmanship was the greatest example for the aspiring artist. At that time he entered Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris.

In July 1856 he left Paris for Naples, his father's birthplace.

From 1856-1859 Degas had his three-year sojourn in Italy, where he visited his father's family. He studied the Old Masters in Naples, Rome, Florence, and Venice, and painted realistic portraits of his relatives there. Upon his return to Paris, Degas rented a studio and began painting in earnest, creating his own compositions as well as copying objects of art at museums. Degas continued his education by copying paintings at the Louvre Museum. There he met Edouard Manet, whose figural paintings of modern subjects would have a decisive influence on Degas.

His works of the 1860s and 1870s showed the transformation of his manner from classical and realist styles to Romanticism and Impressionism. At that time Degas emerged as an artist who integrated several styles, old and new, and created his own, he also made his original art filled with subtle allusions to works of the Old Masters.

The family name was changed from "Degas" to "De Gas" to sound more aristocratic. Degas went back to using the original spelling sometime after 1870.

Monet's painting 'Impression, soleil levant' (Impression, Sunrise 1872) was untitled until the first show in 1874. A title was needed in a hurry for the catalogue. Monet suggested "Impression" as a simple title for his painting. The catalogue editor, Renoir's brother Edouard, added an explanatory 'Sunrise', thus making "Impression: soleil levant" the official title for Monet's work. From the painting's title, art critic Louis Leroy coined the term "Impressionism", which he intended to be derogatory. Monet's title came under criticism which seized upon the first word. His works were exhibited along with the paintings of his friends: Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, Auguste Renoir, Alfred Sisley, Paul Cezanne, and Georges Seurat. They became called the Impressionists and continued to exhibit together despite the financial failure of their first show. However, Degas did not follow others in using little brush-strokes and vibrant pure colors. While his friends, the Impressionists, were painting mainly outdoors, 'en plein aire', he often worked from memory, and preferred sketching from nude models who posed in his studio. Degas considered himself a Realist, not an Impressionist, albeit he used some of the Impressionist techniques and color schemes in his own works. He distinguished himself from the group by exhibiting pictures that considered to be both intellectually and formally rigorous. He was acclaimed by his contemporaries for his pastels which display his mastery of the medium. Dancers are among the most moving of Degas's images of life backstage of the Paris Opera. He made numerous studies of his models, in order to position their heads, arms , and legs so that they projected a sence of effort and movement. He also used the pastel studies to explore the various color effects he wanted to achieve in the final oil painting. He also experimented with technical approach, creating a rough, layered surface, sometimes using his fingers to manipulate the paint.

In 1873 he joined with the other artists, including Paul Cezanne, Claude Monet, and Camille Pissarro to form the 'Anonymous Society of Artists'.

In 1874 Degas helped organize the first exhibition of the 'Anonymous Society of Artists' in the Paris studio of photographer Nadar.

From 1874 until 1886 Degas participated in all of the impressionists exhibitions.

In the late 1880s, with his eyesight failing, Degas gradually shifted to sculpture. At that time his opulent workshop in Paris was adorned with paintings and sculptures, which he made over the course of his productive life. The subject of the female nude increasingly occupied Degas's work in all media during the last two decades of his career. He abandoned many of his scenes of modern life to concentrate on images of ballet dancers and female bathers. Degas experimented with highly artificial poses in his female bathers, exploring the possibilities of presenting a figure in an interior space. Despite their striking originality and modernity, his bathers are deeply rooted in his studies of the Old Masters, and show that Degas perceived his late bathers as being part of a long artistic tradition. However, his deteriorating eyesight no longer allowed him to sketch in the evenings, and he had to ask others to read to him.

After the last impressionist exhibition of 1886, he stopped showing his works to public. He continued making paintings and sculptures for his own joy. At that time Degas was fascinated with the technical and artistic aspects of photography. He embraced the new medium as an artistic activity that he could pursue at night. Degas constantly experimented to achieve a variety of light effects in his photographs by using lamps and moonlight with prolonged exposures to create a special atmosphere. Most of Degas known photographs are portraits.

During the 1890s he worked only on the large compositions, because of his poor eyesight.

In the 1900s he gave up painting and focused on sculpture.

He worked until 1912, when blindness forced him into retirement.

He died on September 27, 1917, and was laid to rest in the Cimetiere de Montmartre, in Paris, France.

In 2003 the Boston Museum of Fine Arts sold a small Degas's pastel titled 'Danseuse' for 10,648,000 dollars.