Edgar Degas

Edgar Degas was a French painter and sculptor best known for his depictions of modern life, particularly the lives of Parisian dancers, which he captured in his innovative and dynamic compositions. 

Biography of Edgar Degas

Edgar Degas, the eldest of five children of Célestine Musson De Gas and Augustin De Gas, a banker, was born in Paris, France. The family possessed moderate wealth. At eleven, Degas began his education at the Lycée Louis-le-Grand, completing it in 1853 with a baccalauréat in literature.

Initiating serious painting at an early age, Degas transformed a room in his home into an artist's studio by eighteen. He started making copies at the Louvre, although his father anticipated him attending law school. In November 1853, Degas enrolled at the Faculty of Law of the University of Paris but showed little dedication to his studies. In 1855, he encountered Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, whom he admired, and received advice to "draw lines, young man, many lines." In April of the same year, Degas gained admission to the École des Beaux-Arts, studying drawing under Louis Lamothe, flourishing in the style of Ingres.

In 1856, Degas traveled to Italy, spending the next three years there. He drew and painted copies of works by Michelangelo, Raphael, Titian, and other Renaissance artists. During this period, Degas honed his skills in high, academic, and classical art techniques.

Upon his return from Italy in 1859, the artist continued his educational pursuits by replicating paintings at the Louvre. He maintained his enthusiasm for this practice well into middle age. In the early 1860s, during a visit to his childhood friend Paul Valpinçon in Normandy, he initiated his first studies of horses.

His debut at the Salon occurred in 1865, featuring the painting Scene of War in the Middle Ages, which garnered little attention. Although he displayed his works annually at the Salon for the next five years, he refrained from submitting further history paintings. The emergence of his commitment to contemporary subject matter was evident in Steeplechase—The Fallen Jockey (Salon of 1866). This shift in his artistic direction was primarily influenced by the example of Édouard Manet, whom Degas had encountered in 1864 while copying at the Louvre.

Upon the onset of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, Degas joined the National Guard, dedicating much of his time to the defense of Paris, leaving him with limited opportunities for painting. His participation in rifle training revealed defective eyesight, and this eye condition became a persistent concern throughout his life.

Post-war, in 1872, Degas traveled to New Orleans, Louisiana, where his brother René and several other relatives resided. Taking residence on Esplanade Avenue, he crafted numerous works, many capturing scenes of family members. Notably, one of Degas's New Orleans pieces, portraying The Cotton Exchange at New Orleans, garnered positive attention in France and stood as his sole work acquired by a museum during his lifetime.

Degas returned to Paris in 1873. The following year, the artist's father died, revealing in the estate settlement that Degas's brother René had accumulated substantial business debts. To protect the family name, Degas had to sell his inherited house and art collection. Suddenly reliant on artwork sales for income, he became disenchanted with the Salon and aligned himself with a group of young artists who were determined to establish an independent exhibiting society.

The inaugural exhibitions, swiftly labeled Impressionist Exhibitions, commenced in 1874. Degas played a pivotal role in organizing these displays, showcasing his work in all but one, despite ongoing conflicts with fellow group members. Diverging from Monet and other landscape painters, whom he ridiculed for painting outdoors, Degas, with conservative social views, detested the scandal, publicity, and advertising associated with the exhibitions. He adamantly rejected the Impressionist label coined by the press, and his insistence on including relatively traditional artists like Jean-Louis Forain and Jean-François Raffaëlli in their exhibitions fueled discord within the group, contributing to their eventual dissolution in 1886.

As his financial situation improved through the sale of his artworks, Degas indulged his passion for collecting pieces by artists he admired. His collection included works by old masters like El Greco and contemporaries such as Manet, Pissarro, Cézanne, Gauguin, and Van Gogh. Notably, the artists he idolized, Ingres, Delacroix, and Daumier, were prominently represented in his collection.

In the late 1880s, Degas developed a keen interest in photography. He captured many of his friends, often using lamplight, as seen in his double portrait of Renoir and Mallarmé. Additionally, his photographs featuring dancers and nudes served as references for some of Degas's drawings and paintings.

As time passed, Degas became increasingly isolated, influenced in part by his belief that a painter should have no personal life. The controversy surrounding the Dreyfus Affair brought his antisemitic tendencies to light, leading to a rupture with all of his Jewish friends. In his later years, Degas expressed regret over the loss of these friendships.

Degas, never having married, spent the final years of his life in a state of near-blindness, restlessly wandering the streets of Paris. He passed away in 1917. The last phase of Degas's life was marked by sadness and solitude, exacerbated by the fact that he outlived many of his closest friends.

Edgar Degas's Art Style

Throughout his life, the reception of Edgar Degas's work elicited a spectrum of reactions, ranging from admiration to contempt. Initially recognized as a promising artist in the conventional mode, particularly after 1860, Degas saw several of his paintings accepted in the Salon, garnering praise from figures like Pierre Puvis de Chavannes and the critic Castagnary.

However, Degas eventually aligned himself with the Impressionists, rejecting the Salon's rigid rules, judgments, and elitism—just as the Salon and the general public initially rejected the experimentalism of the Impressionists.

While Degas's work stirred controversy, it was generally admired for its exceptional draftsmanship. The suite of nudes he exhibited in the eighth Impressionist Exhibition in 1886 sparked significant critical commentary, with an overall positive and laudatory reception. His 'La Petite Danseuse de Quatorze Ans' was probably his most controversial piece, with some critics finding it 'appalling ugliness' while others saw in it a 'blossoming.'

By the end of his life, Degas had gained recognition as an important artist and is now considered 'one of the founders of Impressionism.' Despite crossing stylistic boundaries, his association with the major figures of Impressionism, his dynamic depictions of everyday life, and his bold color experiments firmly tie him to the Impressionist movement as one of its early great artists.

Degas's paintings, pastels, drawings, and sculptures, many of the latter not initially intended for exhibition and discovered only after his death, are prominently displayed in numerous museums. While he had no formal pupils, he significantly influenced several important painters, including Jean-Louis Forain, Mary Cassatt, and Walter Sickert.