Edgar Degas
French Impressionist artist famous for his pastel drawings and oil paintings, especially of dancers.
Edgar Degas was a French artist linked to Impressionism, though he disliked the label and called himself a realist. He worked in pastels, oil paints, wax, prints, and drawings, but is best known for his dance scenes—over half his pieces feature dancers. A skilled draftsman, he excelled at capturing motion, especially in ballet dancers and bathing nudes. He also painted racehorses, jockeys, and portraits marked by psychological depth and a sense of isolation. Early on, Degas aimed to be a history painter, training rigorously in classical art. In his early thirties, he shifted focus, applying traditional techniques to modern subjects and becoming a painter of contemporary life.
Born in Paris in 1834 to a moderately wealthy family, Degas was the oldest of five children. His mother was a Creole from New Orleans; his father was a banker. His maternal grandfather, of French descent, was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and settled in New Orleans in 1810. Degas started school at eleven at the Lycée Louis-le-Grand. His mother died when he was thirteen, leaving his father and unmarried uncles as key influences. He began painting early, turning a room into a studio by the time he graduated with a literature baccalauréat in 1853 at eighteen. He then registered as a copyist at the Louvre, but his father wanted him to study law. Degas enrolled at the University of Paris law faculty in November 1853 but put little effort into it.
In 1855, he met Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, whom he admired and who advised him to draw constantly from life and memory. That April, Degas entered the École des Beaux-Arts, studying under Louis Lamothe in Ingres’s style. In July 1856, he left for Italy, staying three years. In 1858, while visiting his aunt’s family in Naples, he made early studies for *The Bellelli Family*. He also copied works by Michelangelo, Raphael, Titian, and others, often focusing on small details like a secondary figure or a head.
Returning to France in 1859, Degas set up a Paris studio and began *The Bellelli Family*, a large canvas for the Salon that he finished only in 1867. He started history paintings like *Alexander and Bucephalus* and *The Daughter of Jephthah* (1859–1860), *Sémiramis Building Babylon* (1860), and *Young Spartans Exercising* (around 1860). In 1861, he visited a childhood friend and made his first horse studies. His Salon debut came in 1865 with *Scene of War in the Middle Ages*, which drew little notice. He exhibited there annually for five more years but stopped submitting history paintings. *Scene from the Steeplechase: The Fallen Jockey* (1866) showed his turn to contemporary subjects, influenced by Édouard Manet, whom he met in 1864—possibly while copying a Velázquez portrait.
When the Franco-Prussian War broke out in 1870, Degas joined the National Guard, defending Paris and finding little time to paint. Rifle training revealed defective eyesight, a problem that troubled him for life. After the war, in 1872, he spent an extended period in New Orleans with his brother René and other relatives. Staying with his Creole uncle on Esplanade Avenue, he made many works, often of family. *A Cotton Office in New Orleans* earned favorable notice in France and was the only piece bought by a museum (the Pau) during his lifetime.
Degas returned to Paris in 1873. His father died the next year, and Degas discovered his brother had huge business debts. To protect the family name, he sold his house and inherited art collection to pay them off. For the first time, he relied on selling his art for income, producing much of his finest work in the decade after 1874. Disillusioned with the Salon, he joined young artists forming an independent exhibition society, later called the Impressionists. Between 1874 and 1886, they held eight shows.
- born
- 19 July 1834
- died
- 27 September 1917
- field
- Painting, pastel, sculpture, printmaking, drawing
- nationality
- French
- known_for
- Depictions of dancers, racehorses, and bathing women; pastel drawings; psychological portraits
Lore & Background
Degas was born in Paris, France, into a moderately wealthy family. He was the oldest of five children of Célestine Musson De Gas, a Creole from New Orleans, Louisiana, and Augustin De Gas, a banker. His maternal grandfather Germain Musson was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, of French descent, and had settled in New Orleans in 1810. Degas (he adopted this less grandiose spelling of his family name when he became an adult) began his schooling at age eleven, enrolling in the Lycée Louis-le-Grand. His mother died when he was thirteen, and the main influences on him for the remainder of his youth were his father and several unmarried uncles. Degas began to paint early in life. By the time he graduated from the Lycée with a baccalauréat in literature in 1853, at age 18, he had turned a room in his home into an artist's studio. Upon graduating, he registered as a copyist in the Louvre Museum, but his father expected him to go to law school. Degas duly enrolled at the Faculty of Law of the University of Paris in November 1853 but applied little effort to his studies. In 1855, he met Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, whom he revered and whose advice he never forgot: 'Draw lines, young man, and still more lines, both from life and from memory, and you will become a good artist.' In April of that year Degas was admitted to the École des Beaux-Arts. He studied drawing there with Louis Lamothe, under whose guidance he flourished, following the style of Ingres. In July 1856, Degas traveled to Italy, where he would remain for the next three years. In 1858, while staying with his aunt's family in Naples, he made the first studies for his early masterpiece The Bellelli Family. He also drew and painted numerous copies of works by Michelangelo, Raphael, Titian, and other Renaissance artists, but—contrary to conventional practice—he usually selected from an altarpiece a detail that had caught his attention: a secondary figure, or a head which he treated as a portrait. Upon his return to France in 1859, Degas moved into a Paris studio large enough to permit him to begin painting The Bellelli Family—an imposing canvas he intended for exhibition in the Salon, although it remained unfinished until 1867. He also began work on several history paintings: Alexander and Bucephalus and The Daughter of Jephthah in 1859–1860; Sémiramis Building Babylon in 1860; and Young Spartans Exercising ar
Reader's Guide
Degas is often identified as an Impressionist, an understandable but insufficient description. Impressionism originated in the 1860s and 1870s and grew, in part, from the realism of painters such as Courbet and Corot. The Impressionists painted the realities of the world around them using bright, 'dazzling' colors, concentrating primarily on the effects of light, and hoping to infuse their scenes with immediacy. They wanted to express their visual experience in that exact moment. Technically, Degas differs from the Impressionists in that he rejected the term, preferring to be called a realist, and did not paint outdoors as many Impressionists did. His work is noted for its superb draftsmanship and masterly depiction of movement, especially in dancers and bathing female nudes.
Did You Know?
- Degas was born Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas and later adopted the less grandiose spelling 'Degas' as an adult.
- More than half of Degas's works depict dancers.
- Degas's only work purchased by a museum during his lifetime was A Cotton Office in New Orleans, acquired by the museum in Pau.
- Degas served in the National Guard during the Franco-Prussian War and had defective eyesight discovered during rifle training.
- Degas never married and spent his last years nearly blind, wandering the streets of Paris.
Notable Quotes (Wikiquote)
"Edgar Degas (19 July 1834 – 27 September 1917), was a French painter, print-maker and sculptor. He was moreover an active organizer of several Impressionist exhibitions, but never painted 'plain air' himself." — Edgar Degas "Boredom soon overcomes me when I am contemplating nature." — Edgar Degas "J'ai vraiment, un vrai bagage dans la tête.
S'il y avait pour cela, comme il y a partout ici, des compagnies d'assurance, voilà un ballot je ferais assurer de suite." — Edgar Degas "I really have some luggage in my head. If only there were insurance companies for that as there are for so many things here, there's a bale I should insure at once." — Edgar Degas
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