Edgar Degas is an impressionist painter who was only interested in pure art. The genius of painting studied the movement of the human body, trying to convey the smallest details on the canvas.
The French impressionist painter was born in 1834 in the family of a banker, whose financial solvency allowed the future artist to focus exclusively on creativity.
Edgar Degas entered the School of Fine Arts in 1855, and the artist Louis Lamotte (former student of Ingres) became his mentor. The next five years, the painter spent in Italy, where he got acquainted with the works of the great classics of the Renaissance. Upon his return to Paris, he begins to actively experiment, creating copies of paintings by famous French artists that are difficult to distinguish from the originals.
Degas creativity
The first creative works of the artist were engravings. Inspired by the paintings of the old masters while traveling through the cities of Italy, he turns to historical subjects, borrowing from the latter the dryish forms and dark colors. Soon portrait painting became his main artistic area. Such a change takes place under the influence of the notorious Edouard Manet, close acquaintance with whom brings a clear modeling of forms and sharpness of characteristics to his paintings.
Degas's pioneering quest does not stop there. His perfectionist nature continues to grope for his own style. So, this time, the backstage of the theater, laundries, sewing workshops and other attributes of the daily life of Paris itself become the new subjects of the artist. With a genuine interest in modernity and excellent observation, he approaches the Impressionists, enriching his palette with bright and light colors.
Famous paintings
In an effort to overpower the statics of easel painting, Degas makes the human figure his main means of expression. To catch and fix the mechanics of movement on the canvas, he was helped by horse racing and ballet. Here, armed with a notebook, he could analyze the dynamics of human body movements for hours. The Blue Dancers were proof of this. Unexpected foreshortenings of the ballerinas depicted, each of whom is seen frozen at a certain step, made it possible to create the illusion of a movement process.
Love for sculpture
In addition to painting, Degas was engaged in graphics and sculpture. Few were lucky enough to see his monotypes. The circle of the elite included only the collector Vollard, the artist Paul Gauguin and the playwright Ludovic Halévy. His graphics are represented by fleeting sketches of the everyday life of Montmartre in the 19th century. The master created sculptures from wax and clay, and never from bronze. The 150 statuettes left after death were similar to his paintings.
Personal life
The genius of impressionism deliberately chose loneliness as his life partner. Excessive attention to his person weighed him down. He preferred a detached lifestyle to noisy companies. For this reason, acquaintances gave him an affectionate nickname - "bear cub". The elegiac perfectionist reacted negatively to the institution of marriage. Considering that a woman is a muse, and not a creature for carnal pleasures, he ruled out any attempts at physical intimacy. This fact was confirmed by Suzanne Valadon, a model, whose appearance Degas complimented more than once, while completely preserving her purity. He received true pleasure only from contemplation of the female body.
