Edgar Degas
Edgar Degas was a French artist, some
people would refer to him as the expert of
drawing the human figure in
motion. He was known as an Impressionists, and was
different from all the
other artist of his type. Edgar Degas was a person who,
at certain times,
brashly defied propriety and common social practice. Although
he could be the
nicest person, at times he would go into rages during social
gatherings,
becoming hostile with the people who disagreed with his ways and
opinions.
Edgar Degas was born on July 19, 1834, at Saint-Georges in Paris. His
father
was a French banker, and his mother was an American from New
Orleans.
While Degas was growing up his idol was the painter. He began
his artistic
studies with Louis Lamothes, a pupil of Ingres. After studying
there he moved on
and started classes at the Ecole des Beaux Arts. In 1854,
he left and went to
Italy. For 5 years he stayed there and studied
Italian art, mainly works. Edgar
Degas was known as an Impressionist. The
Impressionist were artist who exhibited
their works of art in independent
shows from 1874 to 1886. It was the common
desire to make an open forum for
artist to show their work that united the
group. The word "Impressionist" was
created by the critic Louis Leroy
after seeing paintings in the first
Impressionists exhibition in April of 1874.
The name that Leroy gave his
article in the French periodical was Charivari
"Exhibition of the
Impressionists" and sarcastically protected the new
style of painting that
ignored details, bared brushstrokes, and put unblended
colors beside each
other. Just like most of the French public, Leroy did not
take into
consideration the works by Claude Monet, Berthe Morisot,
Pierre-Auguste
Renoir, and Edgar as art that deserved serious attention.
In 1859 he returned to
Paris. There he painted portraits of family and
friends and many historical
subjects, where he used both classical and
romantic styles. In the late 1860’s
he switched to contemporary themes,
painting both theatrical scenes and
portraits with big emphasis on social and
intellectual implications of props and
setting. Around 1868 Degas began to
get recognized as an artist. During the
early 1870’s, the female became
Degas’s favorite theme. In his studio he
sketched from a live model and put
poses together in groupings that illustrated
rehearsal and performance
scenes. In 1872 he visited some of his relatives in
Louisiana, he painted
The Cotton Exchange at New Orleans, which is his only
picture that was
aquired by a museum in his lifetime. Pastels became Edgar’s
preferred type of
art after 1880. By using sharper colors he gave more attention
to surface
patterning, depicting milliners, and laundresses. Degas depended on
memory
and earlier drawings for the poses. Even though he became guarded
and
withdrawn late in life, Edgar made strong friendships with literary
people. He
exhibited a sculpture in 1881, Little Dancer, and after that his
eyesight
failed. From there on he turned to sculpture, and modeling figures
in wax over
metal armatures. The sculptures he made stayed in his studio in
disrepair and
after his death were cast in bronze.