Degas, Edgar (July 19, 1834, Paris, France - September 27, 1917, Paris), French painter and sculptor, known especially for his paintings of ballet dancers. Other subjects that he frequently returned to include horse races, women bathing, and portraits of friends and relatives. Degas combined a Modern focus on the creation of unusual compositions and the rendering of movement with a traditional emphasis on skillful drawing. An accomplished sculptor as well as painter, he molded, in wax and clay, exquisite small statues of dancers, female bathers, and Horses in motion.
Degas is usually classed with the Impressionism, but he stood somewhat apart from the other artists in this group. He did not share the Impressionists' fascination with natural light and its effects, and he disliked painting directly from nature, preferring instead to work in the studio. Moreover, Degas had little interest in landscape - the primary subject matter of the Impressionists - and concentrated instead on the human figure. Also unlike the Impressionists, Degas was interested in drawing and emphasized line in his work.
The art of Degas reflects a concern for the psychology of movement and expression and the Harmony of line and Continuity of Contour.
Edgar Degas favored subjects in movement as though caught by a candid camera. Degas's style of composition was influenced by photography and by Japanese prints. Although his paintings of ballet dancers, musicians, laundresses, and bathing women appear casual and unstudied, the compositions, with their oblique views and asymmetrical balance, were in fact carefully calculated. Degas's portraiture is also unique in its integration of figures with their settings and in its revelation of personality.
Degas experimented a good deal with technique. He tried various printmaking methods, and in his paintings he sometimes used unusual combinations of media, such as pastel or crayon with tempera paint.
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