Edgar Degas

Summary

Edgar Degas (1834–1917) was a French painter, sculptor, and printmaker, widely associated with the Impressionist movement yet distinct for his academic training and commitment to Realism. Unlike many of his contemporaries, Degas rejected the Impressionist label, preferring to call himself an “Independent” artist. His art is best known for its candid depictions of modern life in Paris, particularly his intimate studies of women—dancers, laundresses, and singers—often captured in unusual, unposed positions. Degas’s careful observation of the human figure, combined with innovative compositions and a fascination with movement, marks him as one of the most important figures of late 19th-century French art.

Childhood and Early Training

Born on July 19, 1834, in Paris into a wealthy Franco-Italian banking family, Edgar Degas was the eldest of five children. Originally bearing the surname “de Gas,” he simplified it to “Degas” in 1870. Encouraged by his family to pursue the arts but not necessarily as a profession, Degas graduated with a literature baccalaureate in 1853 before registering at the Louvre as a copyist—a foundational experience that shaped his artistic rigor. Briefly enrolled in law school, Degas abandoned his father’s hopes of a legal career and, in 1855, entered the prestigious École des Beaux-Arts. There, under the tutelage of academic artist Louis Lamothe—himself a student of Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres—Degas honed his drawing skills. His admiration for Ingres’s maxim, “Draw lines, young man, draw lines,” guided his meticulous approach to draftsmanship. That same year, the Exposition Universelle exposed him to Gustave Courbet’s Realism, deeply influencing his aesthetic.

Formative Years and Artistic Influences

Between 1856 and 1859, Degas spent three formative years in Italy, studying Renaissance masters such as Michelangelo, Raphael, and Titian. During this period, he completed his early masterpiece, The Bellelli Family (1859), a Realist portrait notable for its psychological intensity. Degas’s encounter with Édouard Manet at the Louvre in 1864 was pivotal. Their friendship lasted until Manet’s death and significantly influenced Degas’s development. While Manet was extroverted and outspoken, Degas was introspective and self-critical, a dynamic that enriched both artists and helped shape the emerging Impressionist movement.

His early exhibition record began at the Paris Salon in 1865, showcasing works that blurred portraiture and genre painting. It was during the Franco-Prussian War (1870–71) that Degas realized his eyesight was failing—a genetic defect that would profoundly affect his later career.

Mature Period and Artistic Innovation

Though active in the 1860s, Degas’s most celebrated works emerged in the 1870s, when he turned his gaze firmly toward Parisian urban life. Inspired by theaters, cafés, opera houses, and racecourses, he captured scenes of modern leisure with acute observational precision. Works like Foyer de la Danse (1872), Musicians in the Orchestra (1872), and A Carriage at the Races (1873) exemplify his innovative use of unconventional perspectives, often depicting figures partially cropped or seen from above or behind, evoking the viewpoint of a distracted observer.

Unlike many Impressionists, Degas preferred the controlled environment of the studio to plein air painting, creating outdoor scenes from memory or imagination. Between 1872 and 1873, he visited New Orleans, painting A Cotton Office in New Orleans (1873), the only one of his works purchased by a museum during his lifetime.
Degas played a central role in organizing and exhibiting with the Impressionists but maintained a critical distance, never fully embracing their more spontaneous aesthetic. Despite this, he exhibited with the group in all but one of their shows through 1886 and recruited numerous artists to participate.

Personal Life and Complex Views on Women

Degas remained a lifelong bachelor, and his relationships, particularly with women, have long fascinated scholars. Contemporary accounts suggest he was socially awkward and possibly asexual or homosexual, though definitive evidence is lacking. His portrayals of women—often in moments of vulnerability such as dancers warming up or women at their toilette—have attracted criticism for their voyeuristic and sometimes degrading quality.

Feminist critics, such as poet Tom Paulin, have described these depictions as treating women like performing animals, while historian Tobia Bezzola noted a blend of voyeurism and disgust in Degas’s works, particularly his brothel scenes. However, some argue that Degas’s treatment of female subjects stemmed from a commitment to realism and a desire to portray unvarnished truths rather than idealized forms.

Degas himself acknowledged the controversial nature of his work on women, remarking to painter Georges Jeanniot that he had “perhaps too often considered woman as an animal,” showing them “without their coquetry, in the state of animals cleaning themselves.” Nevertheless, accounts from acquaintances reveal that Degas was capable of genuine affection and loyalty toward his models and friends.

Late Career and Legacy

As his eyesight deteriorated, Degas increasingly turned to pastels, monotypes, and sculpture, creating sensitive studies of the female form, such as the bronze Woman Rubbing Her Back with a Sponge (1900). He also became a notable art collector, acquiring works by Manet, Pissarro, Cézanne, Van Gogh, and Gauguin, as well as older masters like Delacroix and Ingres.

Degas’s later years were marked by growing isolation, ruptured friendships with fellow Impressionists such as Monet and Renoir, and his outspoken anti-Semitism, most notably during the Dreyfus Affair, which further alienated him from many peers. He died in Paris on September 27, 1917.

Legacy

By the time of his death, Edgar Degas was firmly established as a leading figure in 19th-century French art. His unique synthesis of Realism and Impressionism, combined with his innovative compositions and intense study of human movement, set him apart from his contemporaries. Since the 1970s, scholarly interest has focused heavily on Degas’s complex relationship with his female subjects and his troubling personal views, particularly his anti-Semitism and perceived misogyny. Yet many art historians caution against applying modern moral judgments anachronistically. John Richardson famously described Degas as a “misogynist in a misogynistic society,” underscoring the need to understand him within his historical context.

Despite controversies, Degas’s artistic legacy endures. His unflinching portrayals of modern life, exploration of human psychology, and technical mastery continue to captivate audiences and influence artists worldwide. His dedication to depicting the human figure with honesty and innovation secures his place among the giants of Western art history.