Edgar Degas, A Perfectionist

Art Culture General

21.03.2021

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Edgar Degas

Edgar Degas was a famous French painter, sculptor, and printmaker. He lived between 1834 and 1917.

He was born into a wealthy family, his mother American and his father a French banker. The last name ¨Degas¨ was written De Gas, but later to simplify it would become ¨Degas¨. Edgar Degas was a loner, never married, or had children. Neither romances nor lovers were known to him.

The Opera

Due to the economic position of the Degas family, the opera was frequented by Edgar Degas from an early age. His father used to have small meetings with musicians. In this painting, Degas’s father is seen with one of the musicians. It would be the only portrait he made of his father, a central figure in his life.

The Peletier Opera, which caught fire, was a place much admired by Degas. Some of his paintings were set in spaces of this opera, although the new Opera Garnier was already in operation.

Portrait of Lorenzo Pagans and Auguste de Gas. 1872.

Degas’s Artwork

Degas was a perfectionist. He concentrated on drawing, drawing the lines. By drawing and painting over and over until it was perfect, nothing was random. He was an admirer of the French artist Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, who told him when he met him: “Draw lines and more lines, young man, taken from reality and memory so that you can become a good artist. “.

Degas made some paintings that he would present at the Paris Salon, but they did not cause much surprise. It would continue like this for other years, none of those works would be historical. Little by little, he was moving away from traditional art.

When we know Degas’s artwork, we can notice very particular characteristics, which make his creations unique.

Degas’s artworks are almost photographic. With figures cut out as would happen in a photograph. In this famous work by Degas, Swaying Dancer (1879), we can see how two of the green dancers are cut off. Almost as if the work was done from a photograph.

Besides that, the angle in which he painted the paintings, always gave the feeling of being just another spectator, a voyeur focused on something specific.

Also, Degas’s artworks used to have lines on the floor. It was a recurring feature. That brought perspective to the artwork.

Degas used to paint in a studio. He frequented the opera, its rehearsal areas, and hallways. He memorized the scenes and then put them back together in his study. As we can see in his artworks, not all of them were located on the stage. Most were in rehearsals.

Something curious about some of his artworks is, that male characters were watching the dancers rehearse. This practice used to be common at that time. Men used to pay to see rehearsals. The dancers used to be from low-income classes, so finding a sponsor to help them was important. The dance was intimately linked to prostitution, at that time in France.

This work ¨Ballet Rehearsal on Stage¨ has three versions. This is due to the artist’s search for perfection.

The impressionists

A group of young artists began to meet in Paris to hold exhibitions of their artworks. Artists who did not exhibit at the Paris Salon, due to their innovative style, far from traditional art. The performances of the group’s artists used to cause a scandal. This group was known as The Impressionists.

The Impressionists used to paint outdoors, they painted nature. Degas did not find nature interesting, what he was passionate about was the subject of dancers and ladies bathing naked. Furthermore, the Impressionists painted on the stain, that is, they did not exercise the line, the drawing. In this sense, Degas was moving away from impressionism. He made it very clear that he considered himself more of a realist artist than an impressionist.

Degas participated in almost all the exhibitions of the Impressionists. However, he did not have a good relationship with the other artists in the group. Degas had a strong personality and used to speak without filters. His comments were usually sharp and dry, causing him to clash with the group members.