Art Sunday; Degas and his Dancers

Edgar Degas (1834 - 1917)

He was a French painter, graphic artist, and sculptor, one of the outstanding figures of Impressionism. He exhibited at seven out of the eight impressionist exhibitions, but in many ways he was an ‘outsider’ and stood apart from the rest of the group. He strove to create scenes of spontaneity  and movement, and like the other impressionists, he was influenced by photography and Japanese color prints. This influence is seen in his use of unusual angles and the way his figures are often ‘cut off’ by the edge of the canvas.
Unlike the other impressionists he had little interest in landscape and did not paint out of doors, therefore he didn’t share the Impressionist trait of portraying the changing light and atmosphere. The apparent spontaneity of his work masks the careful composition of each of his scenes, his paintings were all very  carefully composed. He said that 'Even when working from nature, one has to compose' and that 'No art was ever less spontaneous than mine'.

Degas always showed a preference for pastel and when his sight began to fail in the 1880s his preference for this medium increased. He also began modeling in wax, and during the 1890s-as his sight worsened-he devoted himself increasingly to sculpture as opposed to painting and drawing. His favorite subjects remained horses in action; women at their toilet, nude and of course his famous dancers. The figures that were carefully modeled in wax prior to his death were later cast in bronze

The saddest thing about Degas was; for the last 20 years of his life he was virtually blind and led a reclusive life. There can be nothing worse than blindness to a man who operates so visually. He was a powerful personality and his complete dedication to his art made him seem distant and reserved. He was an undisputed  genius who evoked universal respect from other artists. 
Renoir ranked him above Rodin as a sculptor, and in 1883 Camille Pissarro wrote that he was 'certainly the greatest artist of our epoch'. Although a bit of an outsider to the group he  was the first of the Impressionists to achieve widespread recognition. His work has influenced subsequent 20th-century art by those artists he knew personally, such as Sickert, and also on later admirers and followers.
He was an excellent draughtsman and his work has great appeal to other outstanding 20th-century draughtsman, such as Hockney and Picasso and his mastery of pastel has been an inspiration influence on Kitaj.


These two videos are not ballet performances viewed from an audience point of view. The second is a ballet class similar to many classes Degas sat in on and took inspiration from. The first is a performance, but seen from behind stage in a way that he would have viewed many dancers.
These are the type of scenes Degas used to create his wonderful paintings and drawings, I think these two videos show the inspiration, angles and compositions used in his work far more than a video of a performance viewed as part of the audience. (sorry but the first one is very short and has embedding disabled which is why I have left a link)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHWZEUGL0Q4