Edgar DegasFillette portant des fleurs dans son tablier
About the Item
- Creator:Edgar Degas (1834-1917, French)
- Dimensions:Height: 28.86 in (73.3 cm)Width: 21.93 in (55.7 cm)
- Medium:
- Period:
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:Basel, CH
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU2371211768922
Edgar Degas
Edgar Degas, born Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas in Paris in 1834, was the oldest of five children of Célestine Musson De Gas, a Creole from New Orleans, and Augustin De Gas, a banker. Degas began his schooling at age eleven, enrolling in the Lycée Louis-le-Grand, but after his mother died when he was thirteen, his father and grandfather became the main influences on him for the remainder of his youth.
Upon graduating the Lycée in 1853, at age 18, he registered as a copyist in the Louvre Museum, but his father expected him to go to law school. Degas duly enrolled at the faculty of law of the University of Paris, in November 1853, but applied little effort to his studies. In 1855, Degas met Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, whose advice he never forgot: “Draw lines, young man, and still more lines, both from life and from memory, and you will become a good artist.” In April of that year, Degas was admitted to the École des Beaux-Arts.
Evidence of Degas’ classical education can be seen in his early painting, Young Spartans Exercising (ca. 1860; National Gallery, London), done while he was still in his twenties. After 1865, when the Salon accepted his history painting The Misfortunes of the City of Orléans (Musée d'Orsay, Paris), Degas did not paint Academic subjects again, focusing his attention on scenes of modern life. He began to paint scenes of such urban leisure activities as horse racing and, after about 1870, of café-concert singers and ballet dancers. Degas' interest in ballet dancers intensified in the 1870s, and eventually he produced approximately 1,500 works on the subject. These are not traditional portraits, but studies that address the movement of the human body, exploring the physicality and discipline of the dancers through the use of contorted postures and unexpected vantage points.
Following the opening of trade with Japan in 1854, many French artists, including Degas, were increasingly influenced by Japanese prints. Degas abstracted from these prints their inventive compositions and points of view, particularly in his use of cropping and asymmetry [Dancers Practicing at the Bar (1877); Dancers, Pink and Green (ca. 1890)]. He also observed how sixteenth-century Italian Mannerists similarly framed their subjects, sometimes cutting off part of a figure.
Degas had an interest in a wide range of media, including engraving, monotype, and photography. Before 1880, he generally used oils for his completed works, but after 1875, he began using pastels more frequently, even in finished works such as Portraits at the Stock Exchange (1876). He submitted a suite of nudes, all rendered in pastel, to the final Impressionist exhibition in 1886; among these was Woman Bathing in a Shallow Tub (1885). The figures in these pastels were criticized for their ungainly poses.
By the late 1880s, Degas’s eyesight had begun to fail, perhaps as a result of an injury suffered during his service in defending Paris during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71. After that time he focused almost exclusively on dancers and nudes, increasingly turning to sculpture. Degas continued working as late as 1912, when he was forced to leave the studio in Montmartre in which he had labored for more than twenty years. He died five years later in 1917, at the age of eighty-three.
Find original Edgar Degas drawings, prints, paintings and other art on 1stDibs.
(Biography provided by Stern Pissarro Gallery)
- ShippingRetrieving quote...Ships From: Basel, Switzerland
- Return PolicyThis item cannot be returned.
- Maisons à BillancourtBy Albert MarquetLocated in Basel, CHALBERT MARQUET (BORDEAUX, 1875 – PARIS, 1947) Maisons à Billancourt Vers 1903-1904 Période fauve Huile sur toile 50,2 x 60,2 cm. Signé en bas à droite « marquet » Provenance (Probabl...Category
Early 1900s Fauvist Paintings
MaterialsOil
- Nature morte au coquetier renverséBy Eugène Louis BoudinLocated in Basel, CHEUGÈNE BOUDIN (HONFLEUR, 1824 – DEAUVILLE, 1898) Nature morte au coquetier renversé Vers 1856-60 Huile sur toile 56 x 81 cm. Signé « E. Boudin. » (en bas à droite) Provenance Collection Bonvoisin, Montivilliers (commandité et acquis auprès de l’artiste). Max Bonvoisin, Étretat (par descendance, avant 1951). Collection de Tissot, France. Collection particulière (avant 1973). Vente, Me Libert, Paris, 4 décembre 2009, lot 39. Galerie Schmit...Category
1850s Paintings
MaterialsOil
- Le Fermier de PithiviersBy Jean-Baptiste-Camille CorotLocated in Basel, CHJEAN-BAPTISTE CAMILLE COROT (PARIS, 1796 – PARIS, 1875) Le Fermier de Pithiviers Vers 1840 Huile sur toile 35 x 46 cm. Signée en bas à droite Certificat de la galerie Brame & Lorence...Category
1840s Paintings
MaterialsOil
- Calèche à FalaiseBy Raoul DufyLocated in Basel, CHRAOUL DUFY (LE HAVRE, 1877 – FORCALQUIER, 1953) Calèche à Falaise 1905 Huile sur toile 78 x 64 cm. Signée en bas à gauche Certificat Fanny Guillon-LagailleCategory
Early 1900s Paintings
MaterialsOil
- CoubronBy Jean-Baptiste-Camille CorotLocated in Basel, CHJEAN-BAPTISTE CAMILLE COROT (PARIS, 1796 – PARIS, 1875) Coubron Vers 1870-1873 Huile sur toile 55 x 40 cm. Signée en bas à droite Certificat Lebeau et Dieterle Publication Œuvre reproduite dans le catalogue raisonné et illustré d’Alfred Robaut et dans le deuxième supplément à « L’œuvre de Corot », publié par André Schoeller et Jean Dieterle. Les...Category
1870s Paintings
MaterialsOil
- Le Marché à MontmartreBy Maurice UtrilloLocated in Basel, CHMAURICE UTRILLO PARIS, 1883 – DAX, 1955) Le Marché à Montmartre 1924 Huile sur carton 38 x 51.8 cm. Signée et datée en bas à gauche « Maurice. Utrillo, V. 19...Category
1920s Paintings
MaterialsOil
- My Other SideBy Frank ArnoldLocated in Fresno, CA“My Other Side” is 48”x 36”. This is an earlier piece by Arnold from the estate of a late collector of his work. This piece is predominantly shades of red from light to almost black....Category
Early 2000s Abstract Abstract Paintings
MaterialsCanvas, Oil
- Oil on Canvas “2X8” by abstract-figurative artist, Frank ArnoldBy Frank ArnoldLocated in Fresno, CA"2X8" is 60” x 48”. The yellows, greens, aquas and blues are combined in the heavy hand, brush and knife strokes which characterize much of this artist’s work. Frank Arnold’s paintin...Category
2010s Abstract Abstract Paintings
MaterialsOil
- New MoveBy Frank ArnoldLocated in Fresno, CA"New Move 8" Oil on Canvas is a mix of blues and greens with chrome yellow accents. Frank Arnold is thought by many to be one of the foremost abstract figurative painters and sculpto...Category
2010s Abstract Abstract Paintings
MaterialsCanvas, Oil
- Moving 5By Frank ArnoldLocated in Fresno, CA“Moving 5” is 60”x 48”. The vibrant yellow surface tones of this piece are broken in several places allowing random glimpses of Arnold’s dreamlike underpainting for a multi-dimension...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Abstract Abstract Paintings
MaterialsCanvas, Oil
- Oil on Canvas "OTL 8"By Frank ArnoldLocated in Fresno, CA“OTL 8” is 60”x 60”. Central figure of Vibrant to deep reds on a split field of warm beige/coral and deep red/black. The foreground exhibits heavy strokes and Arnold’s “8” and “X” fi...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Abstract Abstract Paintings
MaterialsCanvas, Oil
- Oil on Canvas “BS Trust”By Frank ArnoldLocated in Fresno, CA“BS Trust” is 36” x 36”. Frank Arnold’s paintings exhibit the highest quality materials for a truly archival piece, created to last generations. Much of Frank Arnold’s work is sourc...Category
2010s Abstract Abstract Paintings
MaterialsCanvas, Oil