Edgar Degas is an impressionist artist who was only interested in pure art. The genius of painting studied the movement of the human body, trying to convey the smallest details on the canvas.
The French impressionist artist was born in 1834 in the family of a banker, whose financial solvency allowed the future artist to focus exclusively on creativity.
Edgar Degas entered the School of Fine Arts in 1855; Louis Lamot (a former student of Ingres) became his mentor. The next five years, the artist spent in Italy, where he became acquainted with the works of the great classics of the Renaissance. Upon his return to Paris, he begins to experiment actively, creating copies of paintings by famous French artists that are difficult to distinguish from the originals.
Degas creativity
The first creative works of the artist were engravings. Inspired while traveling through the cities of Italy, paintings by old masters, he turns to historical subjects, borrowing from the latter dryish forms and dark colors. Soon portrait painting became his main artistic field. Such a change occurs under the influence of the notorious Eduard Manet, a close acquaintance with which brings a clear modeling of forms and sharpness of characteristics to his paintings.
At this, the innovative search for Degas does not stop. His perfectionist nature continues to grope his own style. So, this time, the backstage of the theater, laundries, sewing workshops and other attributes of the daily life of Paris itself become new artist stories. With a genuine interest in modernity and excellent observation, he draws close to the Impressionists, enriching his palette with bright and bright colors.
Famous paintings
In an effort to overpower the statics of the easel picture, Degas makes the human figure his main means of expression. Catch and fix on the canvas the mechanics of movement, he was helped by horse racing and ballet. Here he, armed with a notepad, could spend hours analyzing the dynamics of the movements of the human body. "Blue dancers" became this confirmation. Unexpected angles depicted by the ballerinas, each of which seems frozen at a certain step, made it possible to create the illusion of the movement process.
Love of sculpture
In addition to painting, Degas was engaged in graphics and sculpture. Few were lucky to see his monotypes. Only the collector Vollard, the artist Paul Gauguin and the playwright Louis Halevy were included in the circle of favorites. His graphics are represented by fleeting sketches of the everyday life of 19th century Montmartre. The sculptor created the sculptures from wax and clay, and never from bronze. 150 statuettes left after death were similar to his paintings.
