Edgar Degas Art
Edgar Degas, born Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas in Paris in 1834, was the oldest of five children of Célestine Musson De Gas, a Creole from New Orleans, and Augustin De Gas, a banker. Degas began his schooling at age eleven, enrolling in the Lycée Louis-le-Grand, but after his mother died when he was thirteen, his father and grandfather became the main influences on him for the remainder of his youth.
Upon graduating the Lycée in 1853, at age 18, he registered as a copyist in the Louvre Museum, but his father expected him to go to law school. Degas duly enrolled at the faculty of law of the University of Paris, in November 1853, but applied little effort to his studies. In 1855, Degas met Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, whose advice he never forgot: “Draw lines, young man, and still more lines, both from life and from memory, and you will become a good artist.” In April of that year, Degas was admitted to the École des Beaux-Arts.
Evidence of Degas’ classical education can be seen in his early painting, Young Spartans Exercising (ca. 1860; National Gallery, London), done while he was still in his twenties. After 1865, when the Salon accepted his history painting The Misfortunes of the City of Orléans (Musée d'Orsay, Paris), Degas did not paint Academic subjects again, focusing his attention on scenes of modern life. He began to paint scenes of such urban leisure activities as horse racing and, after about 1870, of café-concert singers and ballet dancers. Degas' interest in ballet dancers intensified in the 1870s, and eventually he produced approximately 1,500 works on the subject. These are not traditional portraits, but studies that address the movement of the human body, exploring the physicality and discipline of the dancers through the use of contorted postures and unexpected vantage points.
Following the opening of trade with Japan in 1854, many French artists, including Degas, were increasingly influenced by Japanese prints. Degas abstracted from these prints their inventive compositions and points of view, particularly in his use of cropping and asymmetry [Dancers Practicing at the Bar (1877); Dancers, Pink and Green (ca. 1890)]. He also observed how sixteenth-century Italian Mannerists similarly framed their subjects, sometimes cutting off part of a figure.
Degas had an interest in a wide range of media, including engraving, monotype, and photography. Before 1880, he generally used oils for his completed works, but after 1875, he began using pastels more frequently, even in finished works such as Portraits at the Stock Exchange (1876). He submitted a suite of nudes, all rendered in pastel, to the final Impressionist exhibition in 1886; among these was Woman Bathing in a Shallow Tub (1885). The figures in these pastels were criticized for their ungainly poses.
By the late 1880s, Degas’s eyesight had begun to fail, perhaps as a result of an injury suffered during his service in defending Paris during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71. After that time he focused almost exclusively on dancers and nudes, increasingly turning to sculpture. Degas continued working as late as 1912, when he was forced to leave the studio in Montmartre in which he had labored for more than twenty years. He died five years later in 1917, at the age of eighty-three.
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(Biography provided by Stern Pissarro Gallery)
1880s Impressionist Edgar Degas Art
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Early 2000s American Impressionist Edgar Degas Art
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2010s Impressionist Edgar Degas Art
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1880s Impressionist Edgar Degas Art
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1870s Impressionist Edgar Degas Art
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Early 20th Century Impressionist Edgar Degas Art
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1880s Impressionist Edgar Degas Art
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Edgar Degas art for sale on 1stDibs.
Artists Similar to Edgar Degas
- 1stDibs ExpertSeptember 16, 2024How much a Degas ballerina may be worth depends on its condition and other factors. In 2022, a cast made after Degas's original Little Dancer sold for $41.6 million at auction. The original Little Dancer is in the collections of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. Though no valuation for this piece has ever been shared, it is likely worth significantly more. If you own one of the bronze casts of the piece, a certified appraiser or knowledgeable art dealer can provide you with a valuation. Find a diverse assortment of Edgar Degas art on 1stDibs.
- 1stDibs ExpertAugust 20, 2024How much an Edgar Degas painting is worth depends on its history, condition and other factors. In 2008, the pastel and gouache work Danseuse au repos (ca. 1879) sold at a Sotheby’s New York auction for $37 million. The work is an excellent example of Degas' famous depictions of ballerinas, portrayed in an Impressionist style. Through his ballerina paintings, Degas sought to capture the inner worlds of dancers and the difficulties they faced as an exploration of the challenges posed by modern life. If you own a Degas painting, a certified appraiser or knowledgeable art dealer can assist you with the valuation process. Find an assortment of Edgar Degas art on 1stDibs.
- 1stDibs ExpertAugust 15, 2024Answers vary as to what Edgar Degas's most famous painting is called because opinions differ about which of the artist's works is the most famous. Some people associate the French artist the most with his depictions of ballerinas, such as The Ballet Class, The Dancing Class and The Rehearsal of the Ballet Onstage. However, many of Degas's other works are also widely known and are on different themes, such as city views and portraits. Among them are In a Café, The Bellelli Family, Place de la Concorde and Interior. Explore a range of Edgar Degas art on 1stDibs.
- 1stDibs ExpertSeptember 16, 2024How much a Degas sketch is worth depends on its size, medium, condition, historical significance and other factors. In 2008, a pastel, gouache and charcoal sketch by the French artist entitled Danseuses à la Barre sold for around $17,000 at auction. Portraying ballerinas in a dance studio, the work reflects Degas’s interest in dance as a subject, a theme he returned to many times over the course of his career. If you're in possession of a Degas sketch, consider having a certified appraiser or knowledgeable art dealer assist you with the valuation process. On 1stDibs, shop a variety of Edgar Degas art.