Edgar Degas - Biography Of The French Artist Renowned For His Figure Painting

The career of Edgar Degas was a long one -the national guard together with his friend Manet
about 60 years out of his total 83. And his style,and many other artists, however the extreme
unlike that of most famous artists who workedcold during the siege of Paris affected his health
into their old age, never ceased developing,badly and at the start of the Paris Commune he
always seeking out new means of expression andwent to rest in the Orne with his friends the
technique.The art dealer Ambroise Vollard one dayValpincon family.
asked him why he had never married, to whichIt was during the 1870's that Degas acquired his
he replied that he would live in constant fear that,reputation as a painter of dancers. The reasons
whenever he completed a new painting, he wouldfor his interest in dance were numerous and
hear my wife say 'That's so pretty what you'vediverse but certainly stem from his life-long
done there!'. In fact, despite today's almostenthusiasm for music and the opera. The interior
universal appreciation and popularity of his images,of the opera house also had many visual
it was never a conventional sense of beauty thatattractions - the possibility of unusual views onto
attracted his talents.the stage from balconies or the orchestral pit,
Hilaire Germain Edgar de Gas (it was only latercontrasts between light and darkness, illusion and
that he started to sign his works 'Degas') wasreality, beauty and banality.
born in Paris, the eldest of three boys and twoAfter the theme of dance it was the racecourse
girls born to a prosperous banker from athat drew most of his attention. Racecourses
Neapolitan family and his Creole wife from Newwere a new phenomenon in France, being
Orleans. He was actually named after hisintroduced there from England in the 19th century.
grandfathers - Hilaire Degas, a banker fromThe Longchamp stadium opened in 1857 and it
Naples, and Germain Musson, a New Orleanswas this course which inspired Degas, Manet and,
merchant. However his mother was to die whenlater, Toulouse-Lautrec. The exclusive Jockey Club
he was only 13 years old.was inaugurated in 1833 and it naturally attracted
He was educated at the lycee Louis-le-Grand, athe same upper classes who attended the Paris
famous school for the elite, where he received aOpera.
classical education and also met his long-timeHis first personal exhibition, which was held at the
friends Henri Rouart, Paul Valpincon and LudovicDurand-Ruel gallery in 1892, consisted of an
Halevy. Having received his baccalaureat in 1853,extraordinary series of semi-abstract monotypes
he enrolled at the Faculty of Law, although hewith enhanced colours representing mysterious
preferred to spend his time in the print room oflandscapes. Besides such landscapes his style
the Louvre where he had already made somewasn't to change dramatically from then on,
copies from engravings, and also visiting thealthough his subjects tended to grow in dimension
painting studios of Felix Barrias and Louis Lamothe.- whereas previously, for example, he would have
In 1855 he entered the Ecole des Beaux-Arts anddepicted a whole dance troupe, he now
began to study officially with Lamothe, a pupil ofconcentrated on perhaps just two or three
Ingres.figures in the foreground. This was undoubtedly to
Not needing to study and compete for the Prixsome extend due to his failing eyesight.
de Rome, in 1856 he set out for Italy, first visitingDegas himself gave another explanation for the
his family in Naples. In October 1857 he visitedmysterious power of his later works: "It's one
Rome where he met Gustave Moreau, already anthing to copy what one sees, but it's much better
influential figure eight years his elder. Theyto draw what can only be seen in one's memory.
became close friends and visited FlorenceIt's a transformation during which the imagination
together between June and August 1858.collaborates with the memory ... there your
From 1865 to1870 Degas exhibited each year atrecollections and fantasies are freed from the
the Paris Salon. He also became friendly withtyranny exerted by nature."
Berthe Morisot and Edouard Manet and, in theDegas continued to struggle against his blindness
summer of 1869, joined Manet in Boulogne andand worked up to about 1912 when he was
Saint-Valery-en-Caux where he painted someforced to leave his apartment where he had lived
landscapes. Of all the artists of the time, it isfor the past quarter century and move to a
doubtlessly Manet with whom he had the greatestmore convenient address in the Boulevard de
affinity. They were both older than most of theClichy. But it proved to be an ordeal from which
Impressionist circle and both came fromhe never fully recovered and, despite the huge
prosperous families so they could also meetinternational success and high prices commanded
socially within their family circles.by his works from 1900 onwards, he became sad
The tragic events of the Franco-Prussian war andand indifferent to the glory. He died on 27th
the Paris Commune of the years 1870-71,September 1917 during the wartime, making his
together with a lengthy stay in Louisiana visitingdeath go almost unnoticed by the world - although
his family from October 1872 to March 1873,perhaps a fitting end for the man who had once
marked both an interruption and a turning point insaid "I would like to be famous but unknown"! He
his career. At the outbreak of the war he joinedwas buried in the cemetery of Montmartre.