degas
Edgar Degas: Capturing the Human Spirit Many famous artists have attempted to capture the human spirit and essence of movement, but few have achieved the beautiful embodiment of it like Hilaire Germain Edgar Degas has. Dancers become immortalized and horses take on elegant qualities through Degas's deft, swift, Impressionist brush strokes. The warm neutral tones and occasional bright colors add feeling and raw emotion to his works, whether sculpture, oil paint, or pastels. Despite his temperamental behavior and various personal struggles, Degas is known as one of the foremost and key Impressionists worldwide. "Ballet Class" offers a peek into ordinary life in Paris and a glimpse into the world of Edgar Degas as well. Hilaire Germain Edgar Degas entered this world on July 19, 1834 quite appropriately in Paris, the City of Lights. Appropriately because light, among a few other things, is key to Impressionism and Degas's use of light brings out the subjects and important focus areas of his paintings. At the time of his birth, his family was spelling their surname "De Gas" to look and sound more aristocratic, but Degas returned to his roots and original surname spelling sometime around 1870. Degas's childhood is not of grea
Of all the Impressionists, Degas's style most closely resembles that of Manet. The woman reading the paper in the foreground gives the painting a casual tone, keeping consistent with the fact that Impressionists generally painted everyday life. The quick brush strokes and the light airiness of the ballerina's skirt are as delicate and beautiful as a spider web dripping with fresh morning dew. Degas died in his beloved birthplace, Paris, the City of Lights, at the age of eighty-three. Degas worked indoors, as opposed to outside in the open air like his fellow Impressionists. These men are occasionally seen in the backgrounds of Degas's works, like in "Ballet Class," where there is a man standing behind the ballerina in the right middle-ground. Many of his male ballet-attending contemporaries found it common practice to have sexual relations with the ballerinas, but Degas does not show this in his work, suggesting his disapproval of that practice (Lipton). Lighting can make or break a painting. Degas loved to paint ballet dancers. Other than these points, Degas can be viewed as a nonconformist and strikingly unique. The two girls and the mirror in the back are somewhat shadowy and might even be overlooked if it wasn't for Degas's genius use of color in the orange and purple sashes which catch the eye. Berkeley: Univeristy of California Press, 1987. ------------------------------------------------------------------------**Bibliography**Sutherland, Jean, and Henri Loyrette et al. Looking Into Degas: Uneasy Images of Women and Modern Life.
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