Degas joined the Impressionist painters. Degas also met Edmond Duranty a passionately realistic novelist who wanted art to be as real as life. Degas frequented cafe Guerbois where many impressionist used to meet. Degas changed his subject matter from historical and classical to real life, painting theatrical and ballet scenes, race course scenes sketched during the events and finished work at his studio. He drew many sketches, paintings and prtraits of women. His works in different mediums emphasised movements and action. He had a special preference for theatre and dance.
He discarded conventional rules of composition and light. He often used slant angles with light coming from below or corners to emphasise a theatrical vision in his ballet scenes. In his works with pastels
he applied layers of color to to give a soft effect in his ballet scenes. He painted the first of his ballet dancers around 1873. Unlike other Impressionists, he did not paint outdoors. He was concerned with composition and drawing. He took part in most of the impressionist exhibitions between 1874 and 1886. Degas stopped exhibiting at the Salon in 1874, and thereafter displayed most of his works alongside those of the other Impressionists, including Claude Monet, Alfred Sisley, Berthe Morisot, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Camille Pissarro.
Originality of Degas' composition was influenced by the Japanese woodblock prints called Ukiyo-e and photography. His perception and analysis of movement made him one of the masters of progressive
art in the late 19th century.
Degas lived with relatives engaged cotton business in New Orleans, Louisiana during 1872-1873. One of his paintings he did that time was brought back to France, The painting on Cotton Exchange at New Orleans brought him recognition by a museaum and was his only work purchased during that time.
His eyesight began to fail from 1880. Degas shifted to sculpture and pastel that did not require acute vision. During the last twenty-years of his life, Degas was virtually blind. He began to work as a sculptor, producing bronze statues of horses and ballet dancers. Dressed in real costumes, many of the statues bring out the transitions in position, gestures and poses of a dance. His famous sculpture (of a little Fourteen year old dancer) was the only sculpture he had exhibited.
Degas was very close to Mary Cassatt, both as her mentor and a close friend. Edgar Degas died on September 27, 1917 in Paris |
