EDGAR DEGAS
EDGAR DEGAS (1834-1917)
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Edgar degas came from an aristocratic family
background.
He took part in most of the Impressionist exhibitions and
was one for its most important members.
His work and awkward personality set him apart from
the other painters.
He disliked the word ‘Impressionists’ preferring to call
himself a ‘Realist’ or ‘Independent’.
He also tried to capture fleeting moments in time but
disliked outdoor or Plein air painting.
He admired the solid traditions of the old masters but his
own paintings featured scenes of modern life:
racecourses, theatres and cafes.
He is most famous for his countless images of dancers.
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He visited the Paris Opera and sketched performances of
the ballet. He focused on the dancers’ gestures and
poses as they practiced, waited and stretched in the
rehearsal room.
Later in his career he painted controversial scenes of
women bathing.
Degas became interested in Japanese prints and this led
him to experiment with unusual angels. His subjects are
often cropped at the edges.
Degas enjoyed spending hours talking about art in the
café Dubois with Edouard Manet and the other young
artists, but he had and aloof manner and sharp tongue.
He had very few close friends and apparently no love
affairs. He was intensely private, particularly about his
studio.
Degas worked in a wide range of media including oil,
watercolour, chalk, pastel, pencil, etching and
photography.
Horses
• Degas drew and painted all kinds of horses,
including racehorses and scenes from the
racetrack.
• Horseracing clubs in Paris were based on the British
model and were very exclusive.
• Both Manet and Degas had friends among the
upper classes who frequented these clubs.
• The newly developed race
track of Le Longchamp was one
of the fashionable sites in Paris.
• Degas set many of his paintings
at Longchamps.
The Opera
• Female dancers became degas favourite theme and he
produced a huge number of paintings and pastel drawings
on paper over his career.
• He spent a good deal of time observing the dancers
movements at the Opera and then brought the dancers to
his studio.
• Here he made drawings and paintings of performance on
stage, groups at rehearsal resting or waiting to perform.
• He also had a model spiral staircase, which can be seen in
his paintings.
The Dancing Class (1873-75)
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This is one of the any
pictures Degas created of
ballet dancers.
Unlike many other artists
work on the same theme,
Degas focuses on the
informal scene of a training
session of the chorus
instead of a homage to the
stars of the stage.
Most of the dancers are
shown taking a break from
their rigorous training
schedule while the dancing
master Jules Perrot teaches
one dancer her steps.
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The setting of the painting is the opera in
the rue le Peletier in Paris which Degas
visited regularly to sketch the dancers.
Degas’s composition is a wonderful
exploration of spatial depth. The format
of the painting changed over the space
of two years.
Degas enhances the senses of depth in
this large space by use of the
floorboards to create natural perspective
lines and by the carefully constructed
perspective lines of the ceiling and
doorway.
• This is further strengthened by the use of aerial perspective as the
smaller figures in the background show much less detail than the ones
in the foreground.
• Even the use of the colour red running through the picture, from the
red bow in the girl in the foregrounds hair, to the fan in her hand and
further back to a hat worn by a figure at the back wall serves to unify
the painting and draw our eye deep into the work.
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The snapshot technique he was famous for is also visible
here, cutting off part of the figure of the dancer on the right
to create a sense of spontaneity.
Degas often re-used his favourite dance poses over and
over in his paintings and sketches, the figure of the dancer
practising her steps appearing again in ‘Ballet Rehearsal on
Stage’. The informality of this work has a fresh appeal to the
viewer, as each character portrayed conveys different
attitudes through their postures.
The girl on the piano scratches her back, another adjusts an
earring, while the seated figures in the background chat.
Somewhat strangely a small dog appears at the feet of the
girl in the foreground looking out at the spectator.
Apprentices began official ballet classes at age seven or
eight and studied long hours, with out pay for several years.
They had to pass several important exams in stages, by
which time they could earn more money than their fathers.
Mothers looked after their daughters during these times
and Degas regularly included them in his pictures.
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L’Absinthe, 1876
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This painting
portrays two figures
seated in a Parisian
café, and provoked a
storm of controversy
when first sown in
London in 1893. The
setting for the
picture was Café
Nouvelles Athenes in
Paris and the models
were Degas fellow
artist Marcellin
Desboutin and
actress Ellen Andree.
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The woman, dressed in dreary
tones of brown and beige, sits with
a dull, glazed expression while in
front of her is a glass of the
absinthe (a highly alcoholic herbal
drink) mentioned in the title.
Beside her the man, pipe clenched
between his teeth stares fixedly out
of the window. Degas was often
criticised for his unfeeling portrayal
of the people in his paintings, and
this was probably the most
infamous of these. There is no
idealisation of these characters,
who slouch in their seats,
unspeaking, giving the impression
of disillusionment and boredom.
This was seen as an unfit subject for
an artist: the patrons of the arts
had no wish to be presented with
such a depressing image of
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The composition of the painting is perhaps the most
revolutionary aspect of the work. The figures are shown
in the top-right of the picture, while the rest of the
space is broken up by the large flat shapes of the table
tops. The picture has the spontaneous immediacy of a
quickly taken photograph, capturing a moment in time.
The edges of the painting dramatically cut off the end of
the mans pope, his arm and the ends of the tables.
Degas’s painting is fluid and loose, blurring the features
and dress of the characters. There are some darker
outlining of the forms however, seen on the shoulder of
the woman and the edge of the table in front of her,
distinguishing his work from that of the other
impressionists.