Edgar Degas:

French Impressionist Artist ...or Was He?

Edgar Degas (1834-1917)

Edgar Degas was born to aristocratic parents but seemed to have more in common with Manet, who came from very modest social and economic conditions, than with any of the other Impressionists of the era. He also differed in temperament and artistic proclivity. Edgar was very much inclined to being independent, although close to the Impressionists of the day, he was always considered a bit of an outsider. His art was never really shaped by the customary definition of Impressionism, instead he revered the work of Ingres, a master of French portraitists. Many of his drawings as a young man reveal his admiration of Ingres and his advice to "Draw lines, young man, plenty of lines." Edgar collected the work of that great artist, and even made notes on a number of his portraits. He studied with a pupil of Ingres and as a consequence, the sense of formal structure blossomed very early in his career. This resulted in the basis for both understated development and radical experimentation that was ultimately reflected in his work.

Degas work was dissimilar from the Impressionists in several different ways. He never adopted "the Impressionist color fleck" that was the hallmark of Impressionist artists. He often ridiculed en plein air or the practice of painting outside. Degas was as far from spontaneous as one could get. His work reflected careful thought and inspiration of the great masters, yet in the scheme of art history his work has been categorized more accurately with the Impressionist movement. In the 1880's he painted a number of paintings that compare with the literary naturalism of his contemporary, Emile Zola.

Edgar Degas came from a very large family and he had many relatives in Italy where he visited in the 1850's and 1860's. He came into contact with early Renaissance painting while on one of his trips there. The strong linear values and the decorative two-dimensionality greatly fascinated him.

In 1872 his younger brother convinced him to travel to New Orleans where his mother was born. His brother Rene' and an older brother entered the family's cotton brokerage business there. Edgar painted several portraits of his relatives while visiting in Louisiana. The artist had called for a new and fresh approach to portraiture, promoting new vantage points believing that a sitter's face should be related to body language.

Since Degas never married and a good number of his paintings portray women in a less than flattering light, many speculate that he was a misogynist. Yet some of his portraits reveal a sensitive and comprehending individual.

Degas is noted for his paintings of women, portraits of Parisian aristocrats, dancers, working class shop girls and actresses.

He became more and more isolated as the years passed. He was of the firm belief that an artist could have no personal life. He had an argumentative nature and he was criticized by many of his friends that eventually abandoned him, including Renoir who could not even bare to be around him. Unfortunately, he evidently completely gave up working around 1912 and nearly blind, he spent the last years of his life aimlessly wandering the streets of Paris until his death in 1917. A very heartbreaking end for Edgar Degas, whom is most often classified as an Impressionist painter, but was he really?

— by Gwen Howlett  |  April 30, 2010

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