"We were created to look at
one another, weren't we?"-Edgar Degas
Edgar
Degas was born on July 19, 1834 to a moderately wealthy family in France. This
famous artist started off his young life as a rigorous academic- he earned a
baccalaureat in literature, and studied classic art intensively in hopes of
becoming a history painter ("Edgar Degas Biography"). He spent a large part of his early
career drawing and painting copies of Renaissance art, such as that of
Michelangelo, Raphael, and Titian.
However,
Degas’s focus shifted from recreating the classics to making modern art. He
joined an independent exhibiting society that quickly gained a reputation as
part of the Impressionist movement ("Edgar Degas Biography"). However, Degas himself abhorred
the title of impressionist artist, and he wholly rejected it, preferring the
titles of realist or independent instead (Schenkel).
The Bolting Horse, c. 1866. Pencil and Charcoal (Lloyd 93).
Degas focused
on motion. Most of his works capture their subject as if it is an action shot
of a moment in time. Yet, in this drawing, he seems to add lines to it to make
it more dynamic.
Degas’s
style was a combination of many unique characteristics. Although he rejected
the Impressionist label, much of his art shared some of its traits. Impressionism
is generally classified by images depicting real life, yet with the use of very
bright colors. Degas experimented with color in his work, and often added
occasional pops of vivid colors and bold lines. Degas created a variety of art
forms, ranging from paintings and drawings to sculptures and prints. Most of
his art depicted some form of movement, and often it was of his favorite
subject- dancers. Degas had a particular fascination with dancers and created
hundreds of pieces of art with them as the subject. He worked with oil on
canvas, pastel, or even printed photography reworked with pastel. Degas was
known use a variety of techniques in his art, including “hatching, contrasting
dry pastel with wet, watercolors to soften contours” and so on (Schenkel).
These
works depict the typical Degas- a female figure caught in a certain motion. It is
interesting that the dancers he chooses to draw are not perfect, slim figures.
Usually, he shows dancers without all the glory- they are at times awkward,
tired, in transition, and just plain human (Richardson).
Woman Getting out of her Bath, c. 1876-77. Pastel over monotype (Lloyd 172).
After the Bath, Woman with a Towel, c. 1893-97. Pastel on blue-grey paper (Lloyd 286).
These
works are also very much in Degas’s own unique style. He often captures his
subjects in moments of innocent vulnerability, as they go about their daily
lives.
After
serving in the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, Degas’s eye problems intensified
and his eyesight deteriorated. He fell into a depression in his later life, and
this is reflected in his later work. Degas’s later pieces of art seem very
different from the earlier pieces, and they depict different subjects, such as
landscapes of lonely scenes(Lloyd 245). However, Degas is mainly remembered for
his art focusing on the female body.
La Rue de Quesnoy, Saint-Valery-sur-Somme, c. 1896-98. Pastel. (Lloyd 267).
This
work was done in the later stage of Degas’s art. It is quite different from
what he is known by, the depictions of females in motion. Most of these
landscape works were done with pastel.
I
chose to profile Edgar Degas because I remember when my mother took me to the
Edgar Degas exhibit in the Norton Simon Museum as a child. It was the first
time I had ever been exposed to his work, and his art was at the same time
shocking and captivating to my young mind. The nude drawings and sculptures
seemed like taboo, but there was something honest and innocent in the art that
drew me in and removed the hint of scandal. And that is the beauty of Degas’s
work. It’s real in a charming way.
Works Cited:
"Edgar Degas
Biography." Edgar Degas Biography. Edgar-degas.org, 2002. Web. 02
Mar. 2015.
Lloyd, Christopher. Edgar
Degas: Drawings and Pastels. London: Thames & Hudson, 2014. Print.
Richardson, John.
"Degas and the Dancers." Vanity Fair, Oct. 2002. Web. 03 Mar. 2015.
Schenkel, Ruth.
"Edgar Degas (1834–1917): Painting and Drawing." Heilbrunn
Timeline of Art History. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Oct. 2004. Web. 24
Feb. 2015.
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