Edgar Degas
Degas, “Aux courses en province” (At the Races)
Now known as Carriage at the Races
1872, Oil on canvas, 14 3/8 x 22 in. (36.5 x 55.9 cm)
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
“In defending it too much, we might end up compromising this group, which is attacked with the same arguments that were used against Corot and many others. Might not Degas become classic some day? No one can express with a surer hand the feeling of modern elegance. He knows how to see and to make others see a horse race, the jockeys welded to their saddles, the excited crowd, the horses at the gate…. Moreover, this is a man whose capacity for observation, artistic subtlety, and taste reveal themselves in even his smallest works.” [Philippe Burty], La Republique Francaise, 25 April 1874
“In general his color is a little muted, except for a small painting, Aux courses en province, which has exquisite color, draftsmanship, exactness of pose, and accuracy of execution.” Ernest Chesneau, Paris-Journal, 7 May 1874
“Degas is strange and sometimes goes as far as being bizarre. Horses, ballerinas, and laundresses-these are his favorite subjects, and of all the things that surround him, they seem to preoccupy him exclusively. But what precision there is to his drawing, and what pleasing accord in his colors!” [Jules-Antoine] Castagnary, Le Siecle, 29 April 1874
Edgar Degas, (1834 -1917), reflects a concern for the psychology of movement and expression and the harmony of line and continuity of contour.
These characteristics set Degas apart from the other impressionist painters, although he took part in all but one of the 8 impressionist exhibitions between 1874 and 1886. Degas was the son of a wealthy banker, and his aristocratic family background instilled into his early art a haughty yet sensitive quality of detachment. As he grew up, his idol was the painter Jean Auguste Ingres, whose example pointed him in the direction of a classical draftsmanship, stressing balance and clarity of outline. After beginning his artistic studies with Louis Lamothes, a pupil of Ingres, he started classes at the Ecole des Beaux Arts but left in 1854 and went to Italy. He stayed there for 5 years, studying Italian art, especially Renaissance works.
Returning to Paris in 1859, he painted portraits of his family and friends and a number of historical subjects, in which he combined classical and romantic styles. In Paris, Degas came to know Édouard Manet, and in the late 1860s he turned to contemporary themes, painting both theatrical scenes and portraits with a strong emphasis on the social and intellectual implications of props and settings.
In the early 1870s the female ballet dancer became his favorite theme. He sketched from a live model in his studio and combined poses into groupings that depicted rehearsal and performance scenes in which dancers on stage, entering the stage, and resting or waiting to perform are shown simultaneously and in counterpoint, often from an oblique angle of vision. On a visit in 1872 to Louisiana, where he had relatives in the cotton business, he painted The Cotton Exchange at New Orleans (finished 1873; Musée Municipal, Pau, France), his only picture to be acquired by a museum in his lifetime. Other subjects from this period include the racetrack, the beach, and cafe interiors.
After 1880, Pastel became Degas’s preferred medium. He used sharper colors and gave greater attention to surface patterning, depicting milliners, laundresses, and groups of dancers against backgrounds now only sketchily indicated. For the poses, he depended more and more on memory or earlier drawings. Although he became guarded and withdrawn late in life, Degas retained strong friendships with literary people. In 1881 he exhibited a sculpture, Little Dancer (a bronze casting of which is in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston), and as his eyesight failed thereafter he turned increasingly to sculpture, modeling figures and horses in wax over metal armatures. These sculptures remained in his studio in disrepair and were cast in bronze only after his death
Biography courtesy of Web Museum Paris.
Edgar Degas, 1834 -1917,
He took part in all but one of the eight impressionist exhibitions between 1874 and 1886. Degas was the son of a wealthy banker, and his aristocratic family background instilled into his early art a haughty yet sensitive quality of aloofness. As he matured he amired the work of painter Jean Auguste Ingres, whose example pointed him in the direction of a classical art. After beginning his artistic studies with Louis Lamothes, a pupil of Ingres, he started classes at the Ecole des Beaux Arts but left in 1854 and went to Italy. He stayed there for 5 years, studying Italian art, especially Renaissance works.
Upon returning to Paris in 1859, he painted in a classical come romantic style portraits of his family and friends and a number of historical subjects, In Paris cafe’s Degas meet Édouard Manet who was a great influence on many impressionist artist, and in the late 1860s he turned to contemporary themes, painting both theatrical scenes and portraits with a strong emphasis on the social and intellectual aspects of life.
In the early 1870s the female ballet dancer became his now famous subjects. He sketched from a live model in his studio and composed into groupings that depicted rehearsal and performance scenes, entering the stage, and resting or waiting to perform are shown simultaneously, often from an deviate angle. On a visit to family in 1872 to Louisiana,, he painted The Cotton Exchange at New Orleans (1873; Musée Municipal, Pau, France), his only picture to be acquired by a museum in his lifetime. Other subjects from this period include the racetrack, the beach, and cafe interiors.
After 1880, Pastel became Degas’s preferred medium. He used sharper colors and gave greater attention to surface patterning, depicting milliners, laundresses, and groups of dancers against backgrounds now only sketchily indicated. For the poses, he depended more and more on memory or earlier drawings. Although he became guarded and withdrawn late in life, Degas retained strong friendships with literary people. In 1881 he exhibited a sculpture, Little Dancer (a bronze casting of which is in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston), and as his eyesight failed thereafter he turned increasingly to sculpture, modeling figures and horses in wax over metal armatures. These sculptures remained in his studio and were cast in bronze after his death in 1917.