Edgar Degas
Edgar Degas Edgar Degas was born in France; being the oldest out of five children. His family was quite wealthy working as bankers. At a young age, he showed his talent and wanted to become an artist. Being in a wealthy family, he was able to go to good schooling growing up. His father wanted him to go to law school, so he attended Faculty of Law in the University of Paris. He didn’t do well in his studies. So he then attended an art school, School of Fine Arts.
He used a lot of his free time at an art museum in Paris ladled “Louvre,” Later, he went to Italy and stayed with his aunt Baron Bluebell to study about Michelangelo and Leonardo dad Vinci. While staying in with his aunt, he painted a famous called The Bluebell Family. He wanted to be a famous artist, so he moved back to Paris in 1859. Degas mainly painted portraits and historical scenes. He turned in his artwork to the Salon for the first time in 1865. The Salon is the official art exhibition in France.
They accepted his artwork of the Scene of War in the Middle Ages. Being enlisted as a national guard during the Franco-Prussian War, this meant little time for painting. He began to stay in Louisiana after the war with his family. During his stay, he mostly painted his family members. He got some attention in France when he painted The Cotton Exchange that was purchased by a museum. Edgar was forced to sell his house when he returned back to France because his brother, Rene, owned a lot of debt. He helped his brother pay the debt by selling his artwork.
When the salon started feeling disappointed about his nettings, Degas and a few other artists started organizing their own “society. ” They were called The Impressionists. Edgar took lead in the in organizing the exhibitions. Ingress, Delicacies, and Dandier were the three artists he idealized. Later around the late sass he began to have a passion for photography. He took pictures of his friends, nudes, and dancers. He believed artists should live alone, so he was never married. He spent the rest of his life wandering around Paris, nearly blind. He died 1917.
Edgar Degas was known as an Impressionist. Meaning using bright colors, using the effects of light. Degas once said, “No art was ever less spontaneous as mine, what I do is the result of reflection and of the study of the great masters; of inspiration, spontaneity, temperament, I know nothing. ” Collecting Japanese prints influenced his work. He was famous for painting horses, and dancers, although he started off his career painting historical events. Degas changed from painting historical events to modern art. He began to paint people at work, for example, milliners and laundresses.
Ever since he started painting modern life, he urged other artists to do the same as well, instead of painting mythological and historical paintings. He changed his brush work, palette, and composition. With his eye troubles of nearly being blind, he never really “finishes” his paintings. In the sass, he mastered oil on a canvas and pastel. Edgar began to draw and paint women in a towel, drying their hair, combing their hair, and taking a bath. He simplified the backgrounds, not too dramatic. He always painted in doors in his studio.
Around 860 Degas had a lot of paintings accepted by the Salon. When Edgar Joined the Impressionists, and giving strict rules and Judgment, the Salon rejected the Impressionists. When he submitted the paintings of the nudes, it produced “the most concentrated body of critical writing on the artist during his lifetime. The overall reaction was positive and laudatory. ” Since he was a leader for the Impressionists, Degas was known to be “one of the founders of impressionism. ” Being in the Impressionist movement, he was one of the greatest early artists.
