Edgar Degas

Edgar Degas was a French artist born on July 19, 1834 in Paris, to a family with 4 other siblings. His mother had died at a young age, leaving his father and grandfather to be the adults of the home. Degas had gone to law school to please his father, soon leaving, and going to an art school instead. Neglecting to stick to this plan, he then traveled for three years in Italy. After the Franco-Prussian War in 1872 was over, he began to stay with his uncle in New Orleans. Just a year after his return to Paris, his father dies, and it is discovered that his brother has astounding business debts. Degas must then attempt to make art for the purpose of selling it, upon also losing his home, and a number of artworks he had inherited to help restore his family’s name. Many years later, once all the debt was settled, he was able to buy a number of artworks from some of his favorite artists. He grew a passion for photography and had a taste for working by lamplight, as depicted in many of his paintings. He never had married, and spent the last days of his life in Paris before dying September of 1917.

~I like this artist because when I first looked up his work, I looked up his portraits. His portraits, it turns out, are known to be depictions of human isolation, which is something I favor. When I then moved on to the other paintings of his, I was intrigued by the lighting angles, and how he paints the different lighting on each woman’s body perfectly,(in his paintings of ballerinas,) as if to bring you into the actual show itself.

  The Star

What stood out, to me, in this picture is the fantastic lighting and detail. Though it’s not too apparent what’s happening in the background, it’s easy to see that he focuses on the lighting reflected in the ballerina’s tu-tu. This shows you where the light is coming in, causing the shadows on her torso, which gives it a more real feeling.

Stage Rehearsal

This picture stands out to me because of how much action is going on, but even more so, how real it seems. The floor is what really caught my eye, actually, because it seems so beat up and life like. The observers to the side are one of great criticism, it appears, while the ballerinas look as if they’re in chaos. The background looks as though they were preforming in some sort of cave, which is really captivating to imagine. This picture really brought me to the scene and seemed absolutely real, while still Degas still maintained the perfect shading to help create the effect.

Interestingly enough…

~Degas believed that "the artist must live alone, and his private life must remain unknown", living in solitude for the majority of his whole life. This led him to focus more clearly on his work, but seemed to have left him stranded from the advances of the world. He lived a successful life, but died alone, never knowing love, due to his dedication to his art work.