Edgar Degas Biography
Birth Year : 1834
Death Year : 1917
Country : France
Edgar Degas was an Impressionist more interested in movement than color. He was born in Paris, France, the son of a banker who hoped for him to go into business. Degas did not begin to study art until he was 21. He studied the work of Clouet and Nicolas Poussin at the Louvre, and after a year, Degas went to Italy and studied the art of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Degas' greatest early admiration was Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, and until he met Edouard Manet and the Impressionists, Degas painted classical historical works. Once Degas joined the Impressionists, he changed his subject matter, painting racetrack scenes sketched from life. In his studio, he finished ballet, theatrical scenes, and many pictures of women. He worked in many different mediums and concentrated on the portrayal of movement that hints to the action immediately preceding and immediately following that of the moment captured by his rapid pencil or brush.
Degas' skill as a draughtsman was extraordinary, and Degas' paintings have the feeling of immediacy that is more commonly associated with the camera.
Degas discarded classical rules of composition and often used an oblique angle with light coming from below to create a new type of theatrically focused space. In his oil paintings, Degas applied his color in translucent cross-hatching. For his pastels, he used a technique where color was applied in many successive layers to give a powdery, soft effect that was particularly effective in his ballet scenes. Stories of Degas' sharp tongue and crustiness abound, but his personality is of little importance in comparison to his art. Degas' hundreds of dancers - in oils, pastels, gouache, tempera, charcoal, pencil, and bronze - are revelations of human movement; his horses seem alive; and his studies of women at bathing, work, or in cafes, have a sense of reality that is both emotional and intellectual.