-Edgar Degas (1834-1917)

The French poet and critic, Charles Baudelaire pointed out the need for ‘painters of modern life’, artists who would interest themselves only in the present. He believed that life in a modern city could provide a painter with all the subject matter needed. He told artists not to ‘dress their heroes in ancient costume’, as the artists of that time such as Ingres and Delacroix were doing.

A group of artists came very close to being what Baudelaire wanted. Edouard Manet, Edgar Degas and Henri Toulouse-Latrec enjoyed their lives in Paris. Their friends were poets like Baudelaire and writers like Emile Zola. They formed an informal club, which met in cafes in Paris and watched the world go by.

Degas was born in Paris in 19th July 1834 to a wealthy family

Degas was influenced by the old Masters and 19th century artists such as Ingres and Delacroix

Degas was interested in traditional draughtsmanship and colour

He was unique because he combined draughtsmanship with innovation

He is said to have the temperament of a voyeur- Degas was content to observe the poor of Paris closely, almost as if they were interesting specimens in a zoo

He often kept his distance from his sitters, as if he was sneaking up on his them

In the early 1860s, he began to paint modern life and what he saw around him (contemporary subject matter)

The most common subject matter before then for artists to use were historic and academic subjects

Degas wanted to bring a new emotional subtlety to painting and not just show a caricature of life

He wanted ‘a social condition to be revealed’

His subject matter ranged from dancers and life in the theatre to prostitutes, out-of-work actresses and drunks

Examples of Degas’ work:

‘The Dance Class’1873-76 ‘The Absinthe Drinker’ 1876 ‘Woman Ironing’ 1873

It is widely believed that Degas’ drawing ability has never been excelled- his genius for line, combined with rich colour sense often seduces the viewer

Degas was friendly with and often exhibited alongside the Impressionists

Impressionism was a new and exciting way of painting, whose artists tried to capture a moment in time and the effect that light could have on subject matter

They often painted the same thing over and over again but at different times of day

They went outdoors and worked from nature

Two of Monet’s ‘Rouen Cathedral’1894 paintings

Degas did not work from nature but always worked from his studio

He often worked from memory and from reworking ideas from within his own pictures

He preferred the effects of artificial light to natural light

Degas believed that ‘art was a falsehood’ and that a picture was ‘something which calls for as much cunning, trickery and vice as the perpetration of a crime.’

However, the final effect of most of his work was often straightforward and informal in immediacy

He was influenced by Japanese Art

He used the new technical advance of ‘snapshot’ photography, which allowed for unposed and unstaged images to be captured

Degas adapted his skills as a draftsman to create startlingly new compositions with his figures

He used unusual viewpoints

He sought to express ‘the particular note of the modern individual, in his clothing, in the midst of his social habits’ (quote by Duranty in 1876)

Degas often worked in pastel, especially in the 1880s, when his sight began to fail

He then chose to work with stronger colours and more simplified compositions

For the final 20 years of his life he was almost blind and lived alone as a recluse

He died on 27th September 1917

‘Dancers in Blue’ 1895 ‘Madame Camus’ 1870

“Portrait of Duranty” 1879 Distemper and pastel on sized but unprimed canvas

100cm x 100cm

Duranty was a close friend of Degas

He was a staunch supporter of Realism

Duranty was an Art critic and novelist, though not the most well known or successful of his time

He appeared in several of Degas’ work

This portrait was created during a time in Degas’ life when he was constantly experimenting with artistic techniques (1875-1885)

At that time, a lot of artists were using modern paints, which were matt

Degas used a combination of opaque, non-oil based mediums

This portrait was a mixed media piece, where Degas used DISTEMPER and chalk pastel

Distemper is a water based, glue-bound medium

Distemper was used to produce most of the image

The canvas was unprimed but sized with glue to prolong the life of the image

It is clear in areas of the painting that the medium used had adhered inadequately as paint losses are clearly visible in places

The pale beige linen colour of the original canvas was left exposed in many parts, which gives an even warmth and harmony in tone to the entire piece

Distemper and pastel are both matt and opaque, which scatters reflected light from the picture surface

The brushstrokes of the distemper have been applied in a quick, loose manner

The powdery pastel has been applied in hatching to add form and detail to the subject matter in a selective way

It is especially obvious on the figure of Duranty, which focuses attention on him because the drawing is stronger and the colour is intensified

Strokes of a startling violet-blue are used to express reflected light in the shadow

Darker greener blue pastel has been worked into the blue of the jacket and black strokes add lines of definition to the form of the figure

Pastel hatching on the face constructs form in terms of modelled colour and tone BUT does not always follow the face’s actual form

This gives the marks a life of their own

This also gives tension between the illusion of making the subject 3D and surface pattern

The painting’s composition is a good example of Degas’ experiments with pictorial construction and space

Unusual square canvas, which stresses the surface’s flatness

The sitter’s head is placed centrally, which makes Duranty’s raised fingers pressing against the skull the focal point ( is this a humorous reference to his intellectual intensity? Or is it a normal pose?)

The figure seems overwhelmed and oppressed by the mass of books that surround him

He seems trapped in a shallow space, completely surrounded by his work and objects of his trade

His desk, which is overflowing with work and writings separate him even further from us, the viewer, and make him even more isolated

Duranty looks away from the spectator, totally avoiding his gaze

Degas has positioned the bookshelves in a very deliberate manner- the second shelf down on the left is joined to the third down on the right

Together this gives a disturbing horizontal that cuts across the picture space. This takes away any feeling of depth and makes the sitter’s space even smaller and more confined

Colours have been used to make the space seem smaller too, like the bright blue and the brown beneath it in the foreground in the bottom left of the canvas

Degas used these techniques to help emphasise the tension between true representation and abstract shapes, which makes the sitter seem quite real

Drawn Studies for painting

These two drawn studies show how Degas began his portrait

Only minor changes were made when he transferred the life study of the figure onto the canvas

The torso was shifted to stress his raised right shoulder

The modelling of his arm was made more monumental

The new angle of the shoulders was echoed in the more acute angle of the desk, following the sweep of the shelves

This seems to trap Duranty in the clutter of his papers even although he is so big and bulky

The striking horizontal lines of the background shelves was invented by Degas