Hilaire Germain Edgar Degas France Impressionism, b.1834 – d.1917.Degas was born into a well-to-do banking family on July 19, 1834, in Paris. He studied at the ¨Ścole des Beaux-Arts under a disciple of the famous French classicist J. A. D. Ingres, where Degas developed the great drawing ability that was to be a salient characteristic of his art. After 1865, under the influence of the budding impressionist movement, he gave up academic subjects to turn to contemporary themes. But, unlike the impressionists, he preferred to work in the studio and was uninterested in the study of natural light that fascinated them. He was attracted by theatrical subjects, and most of his works depict racecourses, theaters, caf¨Śs, music halls, or boudoirs. Degas was a keen observer of humanityĄŞparticularly of women, with whom his work is preoccupiedĄŞand in his portraits as well as in his studies of dancers, milliners, and laundresses, he cultivated a complete objectivity, attempting to catch his subjects in poses as natural and spontaneous as those recorded in action photographs.
Ref No. Degas 1
Race Horses Before Grandstand, 1866-68 Oil on canvas 46 x 61cm Musee d’Orsay, Paris.
Ref No. Degas 2
At the Races in the Country, 1870-73 Oil on wood 36,5 x 55,9 cm Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Ref No. Degas 3
Racecourse, Amateur Jockeys, 1876-87 Oil on canvas 66 x 81 cm Musee d’Orsay, Paris.
Ref No. Degas 4
Before the Race,1882 Oil on wood 26,5 x 34,9 cm Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, MA.
Ref No. Degas 5
Seated Dancer, 1873 Cover 23 x 29 cm Musee d’Orsay, Paris.
Ref No. Degas 6
The Dancing Class1874 Oil on canvas 85 x 75 cm Musee d’Orsay, Paris
Ref No. Degas 7
La repetition sur la scene, 1874 Oil on canvas 65 x 81 cm Musee d’Orsay, Paris.
Ref No. Degas 8
The Rehearsal on the Stage, 1874 c. Cover (53 x 72 cm) Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.