French painter and sculptor Edgar Degas(1834-1917) is considered to be one of the major representatives of Impressionism, due to his innovating composition and his perspective analysis of motion. He also was one of the most active organizers of the Impressionist movement, even though his artistic ideas were distinct from those of his Impressionist friends. He was born German Hilaire Edgar de Gas in Paris on july 1834, of a great and aristocratic family of bankers, rich and refined. His mother was creole, originating in New-Orleans and his father, who was an art lover, allows his son to arrange a workshop in his own house.
Degas explored a more realistic endenvour in his early work concentrating on comtempory life and everday experiences, this interest created an almost immediate connection with the viewers and the individuals presented in his work. Rather than painting perpetuate idealized images of mythological figures and historical subjects resulted in a more clearer depiction of the people;their identities and lives of that time.His interiors and portraits, for example, reveal the ambiguities inherent in human relationships.
When Edgar Degas’ eyesight began to fail him, he began to turn to sculpture. His bronze statues of horses and ballet dancers exemplify the same sense of movement and lyricism as did his paintings, including his famous (Figure 15)‘Little Dancer of Fourteen Years’.
Degas allowed very few people into his studio. Only, his dealer and other close friends knew about his small-sculpted studies – another of his unknown interests.
“It’s quite true that Degas has spent a good deal of time, not only in the latter years of his life, but for the past fifty years, in modeling in clay. Thus, as far as I can remember – or at is to say, perhaps forty years – whenever I called on Degas I was almost as sure to find him modeling in clay as painting.” Paul Durand-Ruel www.askdegas.com 2010
(Figure 15) (Figure 16)
(Figure 15-Back) &(Figure 16-Front)‘Little Dancer of Fourteen Years’ (1880-81).
(Figure 17) Degas,‘Spanish Dancer’,1895.The little sculptures seem to convey his search for muscular accuracy, whether a model is at rest or creating a movement. To capture movement in sculpture is what impressed Renoir.
“That is Degas’ greatness: movement in the French style.” – Pierre Auguste Renoir
When viewing the sculpture, (Figure 15) Degas potrays that theme of vulnerability in a woman by making them individually rather than with a dance partner. This again could also indicate his compassion for the lonely woman in society at that time.
(Figures 18 & 19) ‘Beyond The Basics’ By Megan Harley-Peters, Ballet Tutu inspired dress,Junk Kouture Semi Finalists Fashion Show, April 2011
(Figures 18 and 19)’Beyond The Basics’ is a dress designed and made by me for the Junk Kouture Competition Ireland 2011. Like Degas I too was inspired by the ballet and their costumes in my own work. Similarly I studied the woman’s body form in order to create the tight letard fabric over the body but using melted plastic insteaad of the typical fabric in the costume such as (Figure 15&16) ‘Little Dancer of Fourteen Years’.
Degas’s compassion for a woman’s identity can be seen within all of his work. The angles of the figures, the subject matter, their gestures, the media and lighting all create a sense of admiration for woman and a true fascination of their everyday lifestyle
However what is particularly interesting is that Degas never married and had no children.
‘Almost totally blind in the last years of his life, Edgar Degas died an isolated eccentric on September 27, 1917, in Paris’.
Bibligography
(Figure 15)‘Little Dancer of Fourteen Years’ (1880-81). Front-(Online) (Updated 16 January 2011)Available From:http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/arts/artwork/paintings-by-hilaire-germain-edgar-degas9.htm [Accessed 8 June 2011].
(Figure 16) 'Little Dancer of Fourteen Years’ (1880-81). Back-(Online) (Updated April 2010)Available From:http://chulie.wordpress.com/2008/06/30/degas-fourteen-year-old-little-dancer/[Accessed 8 June 2011].
Quote by 'Paul Durand-Ruel' (Online)(Updated Feburary 2004)Available from:http://www.askdegas.com/[Accessed 8 June 2011].
Quote by 'Pierre Auguste Renoir' (Online) (Updated Feburary 2004)Available from:www.askdegas.com/[Accessed 8 June 2011].
