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Edgar Degas, one of France's most significant artists and a student of Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, was described by his contemporaries as "the most reflective, the most demanding, the most merciless draftsman in the world." He is recognized as a pioneer of Impressionism.
Born Hilaire Germain Edgar Degas on July 19, 1834, in Paris, France, he was the eldest of five children of Celestine Musson De Gas and Augustin De Gas, a banker of aristocratic descent. As a young man, he dropped the pretentious spelling of his family name and simply called himself Degas. From 1845 to 1853, he attended Lycée Louis-le-Grand, graduating with a literature baccalaureate in 1853 before studying law for a year. In 1855, he met Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, from whom he took advice and adopted the master's drawing technique and style. "Study lines, draw lots of lines," Ingres instructed Degas, who ultimately became a passionate collector of Ingres's art. Drawing was central to Degas's artistic practice from the start. He developed a rigorous drawing style inspired by the crisp linearity and elegant forms of Ingres's works, which exemplified masterful draftsmanship for the aspiring artist. Around this time, he enrolled at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. In July 1856, Degas left Paris for Naples, his father's birthplace. From 1856 to 1859, he spent three years in Italy visiting his father's family, studying the Old Masters in Naples, Rome, Florence, and Venice, and painting realistic portraits of relatives.
After returning to Paris, Degas rented a studio and began painting seriously, creating original compositions as well as copying artworks in museums. He continued his education by copying paintings at the Louvre Museum, where he met Édouard Manet, whose figurative paintings of contemporary subjects profoundly influenced Degas. During the 1850s and 1860s, he produced over 700 copies of Renaissance and Classical works by Italian and French masters. He diligently studied drawing and eventually became one of the finest draftsmen ever. He was also influenced by photography and Japanese prints. His work in the 1860s and 1870s reflected a transition from classical and realist styles to Romanticism and Impressionism. Degas emerged as an artist who blended various old and new styles to forge his own unique approach, often embedding subtle references to Old Masters in his original art. In 1873, he joined other artists, including Paul Cézanne, Claude Monet, and Camille Pissarro, to form the 'Anonymous Society of Artists.'
In 1874, Degas helped organize the first exhibition of the 'Anonymous Society of Artists' in the Paris studio of photographer Nadar. Monet's painting "Impression, soleil levant" (Impression, Sunrise, 1872) was untitled until this first show, when a title was urgently needed for the catalogue. Monet proposed "Impression" as a simple title, and the catalogue editor, Renoir's brother Édouard, added the explanatory "Sunrise," making "Impression: soleil levant" the official title. From this title, art critic Louis Leroy coined the term "Impressionism," intended as a derogatory label. Monet's title attracted criticism, focusing on the word "Impression." Degas's works were exhibited alongside those of his friends Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Alfred Sisley, Paul Cézanne, and Georges Seurat. They became known as the Impressionists and continued exhibiting together despite the first show's financial failure. However, Degas did not adopt the small brushstrokes and vibrant pure colors typical of the group. While his fellow Impressionists painted mainly outdoors, 'en plein air,' he often worked from memory and preferred sketching nude models posing in his studio.
Degas considered himself a Realist rather than an Impressionist, though he incorporated some Impressionist techniques and color schemes in his work. He distinguished himself by exhibiting paintings regarded as both intellectually and formally rigorous. His contemporaries praised his pastels, which showcased his mastery of the medium. Among Degas's most evocative images are his depictions of dancers backstage at the Paris Opera. He created numerous studies of his models to position their heads, arms, and legs to convey effort and movement. He also used pastel studies to explore various color effects for his final oil paintings. Experimenting with technique, Degas created rough, layered surfaces, sometimes manipulating paint with his fingers. From 1874 until 1886, he participated in all the Impressionist exhibitions. After the final Impressionist exhibition in 1886, he ceased showing his work publicly but continued painting and sculpting for his own satisfaction. During this period, Degas developed a fascination with photography's technical and artistic aspects. He embraced this new medium as an artistic pursuit he could engage in at night, experimenting with lighting effects using lamps and moonlight and employing long exposures to create atmospheric photographs, most of which are portraits.
In the late 1880s, as his eyesight declined, Degas gradually turned to sculpture. His lavish Paris workshop was filled with paintings and sculptures created throughout his prolific career. During the last two decades of his life, the female nude became an increasingly prominent subject across all media. He shifted focus from scenes of modern life to images of ballet dancers and female bathers, experimenting with highly stylized poses to explore how figures could be presented in interior spaces. Despite their originality and modernity, these bathers reflect Degas's deep engagement with Old Master studies, situating his late work within a longstanding artistic tradition. However, his worsening vision eventually prevented him from sketching in the evenings, and he relied on others to read to him. In the 1890s, his poor eyesight limited him to working on large compositions. By the 1900s, he abandoned painting entirely to concentrate on sculpture, continuing until 1912, when blindness forced his retirement. Degas died on September 27, 1917, and was buried in the Cimetiere de Montmartre in Paris.
In 2003, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts sold a small Degas pastel titled 'Danseuse' for $10,648,000. At the same time, a 1922 cast of Degas's famous 1879 bronze Little Dancer sold for $10,311,500 at Christie's auction.
