Edgar Degas (full name Hilaire-Germain-Edgar Degas) was born on 19 July 1834 in France. He was a French artist famous for his work in painting, sculpture, printmaking and drawing.
Biography and Career :
Edgar Degas received a sound academic training at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts under Louis Lamothe, a pupil of Ingres. As a young man, while copying the old masters in the Louvre, he met Fantin-Latour and Manet. Degas also did a lot of copying during his long sojourns in Naples between 1855 and 1859. The range of his interests was, however, certainly not limited to this; he was fascinated by Japanese prints and closely followed discoveries in the new art of photography.
At the very beginning of his artistic career he painted portraits, the most significant of which is the Por
trait of the Bellelli Family (1860), and several history pictures, including Spartan Girls and Boys Exercising (1860), Jephthah's Daughter (1861), and the Misfortunes of the City of New Orleans, the last of which he sent to the 1865 Salon under the title Scenes de guerre au Moyen-lige.
In the mid-1860s Degas joined up with the future Impressionists, participated in their famous soirees at the Cafe Guerbois, and gave himself unreservedly to purely contemporary themes. He displayed his Steeple-chase Scene at the Salon of 1866 and his first ballet scene, Mademoiselle Fiocre in :'La Source", at the Salon of 1868. From then on the artist turned more and more often for his subject-matter to the daily lives of dancers, opera musicians and jockeys, developing a novel kind of composition based on angles of view unusual at that time.
From the 1870s onwards, Degas painted in pastels more than in any other medium. In the 1880s he produced large pastel cycles of Milliners, Laundresses and Nudes at Their Toilet. During this period he took part in all the Impressionist exhibitions, except the one of 1882. However, the art of Degas is closer to Post-Impressionism than to Impressionism.
Sculpture was one of Degas's constant interests, especially towards the end of his life, when his progressively failing eyesight compelled him to give up pas Lei.
His paintings, pastels, drawings, and sculpture- most of the latter were not intended for exhibition, and were discovered only after his death- are on prominent display in many museums.
Quotes :
- "It is all very well to copy what one sees, but it is far better to draw what one now only sees in one's memory. That is a transformation in which imagination collaborates with memory."
- "Monet's pictures are always too draughty for me."
- "No art is less spontaneous than mine. What I do is the result of reflection and the study of the great masters."
- "Everyone has talent at twenty-five. The difficulty is to have it at fifty."
Trivia :
- He is regarded as one of the founders of Impressionism.
- Female ballet was one of his favorite theme
- Although he worked in many mediums, he preferred pastels to all others.
Edgar Degas Image Source : born-today.com
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