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Edgar Hilaire-Germain Degas

1834-1917 France/Impressionism

 

Brief Biography-Edgar Degas was from Paris; he was baptised Hilaire-Germain-Edgar de Gas but preferred Degas. His father was a banker, and his mother, from a wealthy family, died when he was thirteen. Degas studied law until he was eighteen before convincing his father to allow him to paint.
He set up a studio in the family house, and one Louis Lamothe, who Dominique Ingres had mentored, tutored him. He met the 75-year-old Ingres through a family friend called Valpincon, who had one of Ingres’s paintings. Ingres wanted Valpincon to produce the picture for an exhibition but refused to do so, Degas convinced him to release it, and Valpincon brought him to see Ingres, who gave him advice on painting.
Degas travelled through Italy during the 1850s, staying in Naples and Florence, where he painted several portraits, notably The Bellelli Family, his cousins. Besides Ingres, Eugene Delacroix influenced him. In 1862, he became friends with Edouard Manet, and they had a reasonable degree of influence on each other.
Degas joined the artillery when the war with Prussia broke out, and events damaged his eyesight during the Paris siege in 1871. In 1874 when his father died, his family had severe financial difficulties, and he had to sell his house and all his paintings to bail them out. Degas subsequently struggled to produce enough art to support himself adequately. He received a considerable amount of criticism about his work; however, by 1886, when he was painting dancers at the Paris Opera, things picked up somewhat.
He became good friends with Mary Cassatt; however, rumour had it they were not lovers; Degas never married. His eyesight began to fail in the late 1880s, and he withdrew from public life, doing fewer paintings; he found it easier to do sculpture. His later years were steeped in depression as Degas had become a recluse. He was upset at the exoneration of Dreyfus in his espionage affair in 1897 and fell out with some friends over it, notably Pissarro, as Degas was anti-Semitic. In 1912, he was evicted from his studio and, with poor eyesight, gave up working. Degas lived a life of solitude until he died in 1917.

 

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Combing the Hair

Combing the Hair

Absinthe

Absinthe

Longchamp

Racehorses in Longchamp

The Opera Orchestra

The Opera Orchesrta

Two Dancers

Two Dancers on Stage

The Bellilli Family

The Bellilli family

The Dancing Class

The Dancing Class

 

Woman Ironing

Woman Ironing

Mrs Abtrocknende

Mrs Abtrocknende after the Bathwater

Young Woman

A Young Woman#

After the Bath

After the bath

At the Races

At the Races

Ballet Exam

Ballet Exam

The Rehearsal

The Rehearsal

At the End

At the End of the Arabesque

Ballet Rehearsal 1

Ballet Rehearsal 1

Ballet Rehearsal

Ballet Rehearsal

Place de la Concorde

Place de la Concorde

The Interior

The Interior

Ballet School

Ballet School

Beach at Low Tide

Beach at Low Tide

Race Horses

Race Horses

Coaches at the Race

Coaches at the Race

Count Lepic

Count Lepic and His Daughters

Dance Hall

Dance Hall of the Opera in the rue Peletier

Front of the Mirror

Front of the Mirror

Dancers in Blue

Dancers in Blue

Dancers on the Rod

Dancers on the Rod

Diego Martelli

Diego Martelli

Dress Rehearsal

Dress Rehearsal of the Ballet on the Stage

During the Dance

During the Dance Takes  Madame Cardinal

the Photographer

Dancer at the Photographer

Henri Valpincon

Henri Valpincon as a Child with Governess

Hand Study

Hand Study

Prior to the Start

Horse Racing Prior to the Start

Hortense Valpincon

Hortense Valpincon

Hunting of Dance

Hunting of Dance

Ironing Woman

Ironing Woman

Kneeling Woman

Kneeling Woman Pastell

Lake and Mountains

Lake and Mountains

Landscape with Cliffs

Landscape with Cliffs

The Tribunes

In Front of the Tribunes

In the Theater

In the Theater

Girl is Combed

Girl is Combed on the Seashore

Louisiana

Louisiana

Rene de Gas

Madame Rene de Gas

Mde Dobigny

Mademoiselle Dobigny

Men Riding

Men Riding Before the Start

Miss Cassatt

Miss Cassatt Holding the Cards

Miss E Musson

Miss E Musson

Miss Lala

Miss Lala at the Circus Fernado

Mr and Ms Manet

Mister and Misses Manet

Pedicure

Pedicure

Prior to the Start

Prior to the Start

Race Horses

Race Horses

At the Milliner

At the Milliner

Racehorses Training

Racehorses Training

Riding

Riding in a Landscape

Young Spartans

Young Spartans

Still Life with Lizard

Still Life with Lizard

The Ballet

The Ballet

The Collector

The Collector of Prints

Song of the Dog

The Concert Cafe Song of the Dog

The Singer

The Singer with the Glove

The Star Rosita Mauri

The Star Rosita Mauri

Three Dancers

Three Dancers in a Practice Room

Two Washer Women

Two Washer Women

Waiting

Waiting

Woman at Toilet

Woman at Toilet 1

Woman at Toilet

Woman at Toilet

Hair Combed

Woman Having Her Hair Combed

Bathtub

Woman in the Bathtub

Umbrella

Woman with Umbrella

A Peasant Woman

A Peasant Woman

Stage Rehearsal

Stage Rehearsal