Edgar Degas

Degas (Degas) Hilaire Germain Edgar (19.07.1834, Paris - 09.27.1917, ibid), French painter, graphic artist and sculptor. In 1855-56 he studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. In 1854-59 had lived in Italy; studied art of the Italian Quattrocento. Was influenced by JAD Ingres, effort addiction Degas linear basis pictorial form. Began with austere compositions of historical paintings and portraits ("Bellelli Family", about 1858-60, Museum of Impressionism, Paris). Outlined in Degas at the end of the 1860s. the principle of acute and dynamic perception of the environment and everyday life of the person closer together the artist in the 1870s. with Impressionism. Fascinated by the diversity and mobility of urban life, he wrote the contemporary Paris (street theater, cafes, horse racing) in a continuously changing dimensions, recreating the atmosphere of the capitalist city ("Concorde", around 1875, "Absinthe", 1876, Museum of Impressionism).

1856 Degas in a Green Jacket
1856 Degas in a Green Jacket

Degas shows the characteristic behavior and appearance of people generated by the specific nature of their work and life ("Women on the terrace of a cafe", monotype, pastel, 1877, "Aisle", around 1884, the two works - at the Museum of Impressionism); he reveals the mechanism of professional gesture, posture, movement rights, their plastic beauty. Close attention to the characters (often representing the social rank and file), in a statement of aesthetic significance of their normal state affects a kind of humanism Degas. Degas Art inherent in the combination of beauty, sometimes fantastic, and prose; passing in numerous scenes ballet attractive festive spirit-theater ("Star", pastel, 1878, Museum of Impressionism), Degas, sober and subtle observer, captures simultaneously hiding behind elegant entertainment tedious everyday work ("Exam dance", pastel, 1880 private collection, New York). Degas Works, with their strictly calibrated composition (asymmetric, has a dynamic fragmentation film frame), with their precise and flexible pattern, unexpected angles, active interaction shapes and spaces (often as it turned out on the plane), combine the seemingly non-judgmental and randomness with careful forethought and exact calculation. Refined restraint of color inherent in the works of the 1870s., Over time more and more dramatic effects complemented by artificial light. Stressful nature of the work acquire Degas 1880-90-ies. (images of ballerinas and employees toilet nude women made mainly pastel), more intense and rich in color, with a bigger and almost planar forms, confined space ("Blue Dancers", pastel, Museum of Fine Arts. Pushkin, Moscow). In the late 1880s - early 1910s. Degas lot studied sculpture; in the figures of dancers, bathers, horses (often etude by molding) Degas sought plastically expressive instant motion, sharpness and surprises posture while maintaining the integrity and constructive plastic figures.