Edgar Degas

NAME Edgar Degas

WHAT FAMOUS FOR Degas is renowned for his paintings, sculptures, and drawings, especially his iconic depictions of ballerinas. Although considered one of the founders of Impressionism, he preferred to be called a realist. He was also a pioneer in using photography as an aid to composition.

BIRTH Edgar Degas was born on July 19, 1834, in Paris, France.

FAMILY BACKGROUND Degas came from a middle-class family that aspired to aristocracy. For several years, his family spelled their name as “de Gas” to suggest noble origins. His father, Augustin De Gas, was a banker, and his mother, Célestine Musson De Gas, came from a Creole family in New Orleans. 

Unfortunately, Degas' mother passed away when he was only 13 years old, leaving him to be raised by his father and several unmarried uncles

CHILDHOOD Degas grew up in a cultured household that valued art and music. His early years were steeped in an appreciation for classical traditions, which would later influence his artistic style.

EDUCATION Edgar Degas received an excellent education befitting his family's social status. At age 11, he enrolled at the prestigious Lycée Louis-le-Grand, where he received a classical education. In 1853, at the age of 18, he graduated with a baccalauréat in literature. Following his father's wishes, Degas briefly enrolled at the University of Paris to study law in November 1853. However, he showed little interest in his legal studies.

Despite his father's initial expectations for him to become a lawyer, Degas showed an early inclination towards art. By the time he graduated from the Lycée, he had already converted a room in his home into an artist's studio. In 1855, at the age of 21, Degas was admitted to the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where he studied drawing under Louis Lamothe, a follower of the neoclassical painter Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres. During this time, Degas also registered as a copyist at the Louvre, where he studied and replicated works of Old Masters.

CAREER RECORD Early career focused on historical and portrait painting.

Gradually shifted towards more modern subjects and styles.

Exhibited with the Impressionists, but maintained a degree of independence.

Continued to experiment with different techniques and media throughout his life.

APPEARANCE  Degas had a refined and intellectual appearance. He was of average height, with sharp features and a penetrating gaze. Later in life, he suffered from declining eyesight.

Degas had some notable facial characteristics, including a protruding jawline and a low forehead. These features were particularly interesting to Degas himself, as he was fascinated by physiognomy – the now discredited practice of deducing personality and moral character from physical appearance.

Self-portrait (Degas Saluant), 1863

FASHION  He was known for his somber and formal attire. Typically, he wore a dark suit and top hat on formal occasions. This conservative style of dress contrasted with the more bohemian appearance of some of his Impressionist contemporaries

CHARACTER He was deeply intellectual, fiercely independent, and intensely private. Degas could be reserved and critical, which sometimes strained his relationships with others.

As Degas aged, he became more reclusive and morose. In his later years, he was described as cantankerous, though this was attributed to his failing eyesight rather than his inherent personality. Despite his sometimes difficult personality, Degas was known for his biting wit and was a formidable presence in the Parisian art world.

SPEAKING VOICE Degas had a soft but precise voice. He was known for his articulate speech and often conveyed his ideas with clarity and conviction.

SENSE OF HUMOUR Degas was renowned for his quick wit and piercing observations. His humor was often described as dry and ironic, reflecting his keen eye for the absurdities of human existence1. Friends and acquaintances relished his banter, anecdotes, and piercing mimicry, even if they sometimes found themselves on the receiving end of what Degas called his "wicked tongue". (1)

Degas' humor is evident in some of his recorded statements. For example, he once quipped about plein air painters: "If I were the government I would have a special brigade of gendarmes to keep an eye on artists who paint landscapes from nature. Oh, I don't mean to kill anyone; just a little dose of bird-shot now and then as a warning"8. This statement humorously reflects his disdain for the practice of painting outdoors, which was popular among his Impressionist contemporaries.

RELATIONSHIPS Edgar Degas never married and was known for maintaining a certain emotional distance from others. While he had friendships with many contemporaries in the art world, his critical nature often led to strained relationships. Degas valued his independence and preferred solitude, which he believed was essential for his creativity.

One of Degas' most significant artistic relationships was with Édouard Manet. They met in 1862 at the Louvre while copying a Velázquez painting. Their friendship was characterized by mutual admiration, competition, and occasional tension. Despite their closeness, there is no evidence of a romantic relationship between them. Their artistic dialogue was one of the most significant in modern art history, with both artists influencing each other's work.

Degas also had a close friendship with American artist Mary Cassatt. They met in 1877 when Degas invited Cassatt to exhibit with the Impressionists. Their relationship was marked by mutual respect, collaboration, and artistic influence. 

Edgar Degas, Mary Cassatt Seated, Holding Cards, c. 1880–1884

MONEY AND FAME Although Degas came from a wealthy family, financial difficulties later in life required him to rely on the sale of his artwork. He gained fame during his lifetime, but his reserved demeanor kept him from fully engaging with the commercial aspects of the art world. He remained focused on his craft rather than the pursuit of wealth or widespread popularity.

A £700,000 Degas picture stolen from a Marseille museum was found on a Paris bus nine years later, highlighting the enduring value and intrigue surrounding his work. This remarkable story underscores Degas's timeless appeal and the cultural significance of his art.

FOOD AND DRINK Degas frequently dined out at cafés and restaurants in Paris. He was known to enjoy the social atmosphere of these establishments, which often served as gathering places for artists and intellectuals. At the Café Guerbois and later the Café de la Nouvelle Athènes, Degas would meet with fellow artists to discuss art and ideas.

While Degas painted scenes involving alcohol, particularly in his famous work L'Absinthe, there's no evidence that he was a heavy drinker himself. He was more interested in observing and depicting the effects of alcohol on others rather than indulging excessively. However, like many Parisians of his time, he likely consumed wine with meals.

L'Absinthe, 1876, oil on canvas

At home, Degas' eating habits were relatively simple and sometimes neglected. He reportedly complained about his Italian housekeeper, who prepared "the same meal every night—boiled veal and macaroni, with preserves made from no fruit he had ever identified." This suggests that his home diet was rather repetitive and unimaginative. (2)

Despite his simple home meals, Degas did appreciate good food. When dining at friends' homes, he was known to be delighted by fine cuisine. At a dinner with the Morisot family, he was described as slurping his leek soup with enthusiasm and losing track of conversation when he smelled a lemon soufflé being brought to the table.

As Degas aged, he became more concerned about his health and eating habits. He complained about his eyes and worried about his weight. This suggests that in his later years, he may have paid more attention to his diet for health reasons.

MUSIC AND ARTS A passionate admirer of music, Degas frequently attended opera performances and often depicted musicians and singers in his works. His appreciation for the arts extended beyond visual mediums, and he drew inspiration from the rhythms and movements of music, particularly in his ballet-themed pieces.

Perhaps Degas' most celebrated interest was ballet. He produced a staggering number of works, roughly 1,500, centered around ballet dancers. Degas was captivated by their movement, discipline, and dedication. His interest in the performing arts extended beyond ballet to include café-concert singers and circus performers.

Ballet Rehearsal, 1873,

ART Edgar Degas was one of those singular characters who managed to be at the forefront of a revolutionary art movement while simultaneously insisting he wasn’t part of it. Widely regarded as a cornerstone of Impressionism, Degas preferred to think of himself as a realist, a label that let him cling to tradition while redefining it entirely.

Degas's story begins with the kind of classical art education that sounds profoundly unromantic but proved to be the perfect foundation for his later brilliance. He studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where he learned the art of meticulous draughtsmanship and restrained color palettes. Then came the obligatory "young artist’s pilgrimage" to Italy, where he spent three years copying the works of Renaissance masters. Degas’s time among Michelangelo and Raphael instilled in him a reverence for structure and form, but not without a growing itch for something fresher and more alive.

By the 1860s, Degas began to wander from the safety of historical and portrait painting, lured instead by the vibrant chaos of modern life. Horses became his gateway drug. He started painting racecourse scenes, where he could study the interplay of muscle, movement, and that peculiar energy of horses and riders in full flight. It was during this period that Degas began sidling up to what we now call Impressionism—though, naturally, he wouldn’t have called it that himself.

While his contemporaries like Monet and Renoir were chasing sunlight across landscapes, Degas kept his focus firmly on people. He was never one for plein air painting, preferring the dim glow of a theater or the smoky bustle of a café. From 1874 to 1886, he participated in six of the eight iconic Impressionist exhibitions, though his work often stood apart. Where others blurred their brushstrokes into atmospheric softness, Degas’s lines remained sharp, his compositions geometrically precise. His ballet dancers—those ethereal, pastel-drenched portraits of discipline and grace—became his signature, even though he also gave us laundresses, café patrons, and milliners in all their everyday splendor.

Degas was the sort of artist who couldn’t resist tinkering. He worked in oil, pastel, and bronze, each medium giving him a new way to explore his favorite theme: movement. His pieces often captured his subjects from unusual angles, as if he had crouched in the wings or peered through the crowd to see the action up close. Whether it was a ballerina adjusting her slipper or a laundress hunched over a tub, Degas’s work always carried a sense of fleeting, unvarnished reality.

In later life, Degas’s notoriously difficult temperament became even sharper, possibly exacerbated by his deteriorating eyesight. His failing vision forced him to shift his focus from painting to sculpture and pastels, mediums better suited to his new constraints. Ironically, this limitation unleashed some of his most daring and abstract work, with bold colors and increasingly experimental forms.

Though Degas died in 1917, his influence lived on, bridging the divide between the academic art of the past and the modernist revolutions to come. His ability to turn the mundane into the magnificent ensured his place in the artistic canon, and his insistence on forging his own path—Impressionist label be damned—secured his legacy as a true original.

LITERATURE Degas was well-read and appreciated classical literature, as well as contemporary works of his time. He admired authors who explored human complexity, which mirrored his own approach to portraying the nuances of life in his art.

NATURE Though primarily an urban artist, Degas occasionally explored themes of nature, particularly in his later works. He was fascinated by natural light and how it influenced form, which is evident in his landscapes and equestrian studies.

PETS Degas had a fondness for animals, particularly horses, which he often depicted in his art. His studies of horses reveal a deep appreciation for their grace and power. However, there is little evidence to suggest that he kept pets of his own.

HOBBIES AND SPORTS Degas had a keen interest in horse racing and regularly attended races, using them as inspiration for some of his most dynamic works. His meticulous observations of movement and anatomy in sports reflected his broader fascination with human and animal motion.

Degas was a passionate art collector. As his wealth grew, he indulged his love for acquiring works by artists he admired. 

In the late 1880s, Degas embraced photography. He used it to capture portraits of friends and family, often by lamplight, and as a valuable tool for his art. Photographs served as reference material for his drawings and paintings, particularly those featuring dancers and nudes. He also experimented with photography to explore new compositional techniques and lighting effects.

SCIENCE AND MATHS  His studies of human anatomy and motion, as well as his pioneering use of photography to capture precise details, show an almost scientific attention to detail.

PHILOSOPHY & THEOLOGY Degas was not openly philosophical or religious in his work or life. However, his art reflects a deep interest in the human condition, particularly in the intersection of physical movement and emotional expression, which aligns with philosophical explorations of the self and society.

POLITICS Degas held conservative political views, which were sometimes at odds with his more progressive artistic peers. He was a supporter of traditional values and was known for his vocal criticism of social and political changes during his time.

SCANDAL Degas’s staunch anti-Dreyfus stance during the infamous Dreyfus Affair in France caused tension among his friends and contemporaries, leading to estrangement from several colleagues in the art world.

MILITARY RECORD Degas briefly served in the National Guard during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71. His eyesight began to deteriorate during this period, which influenced his shift from large-scale paintings to smaller works and sculpture later in life.

HEALTH AND PHYSICAL FITNESS Degas suffered from chronic eye problems, which worsened with age and significantly impacted his artistic output. Despite his declining vision, he adapted by focusing more on sculpture and experimenting with tactile methods of creating art.

HOMES Degas lived in Paris for most of his life, maintaining a studio that served as both a workspace and a sanctuary. In his later years, he became increasingly reclusive and moved between modest residences, preferring solitude.

TRAVEL Degas traveled extensively during his early career, In 1856, at the age of 22, he embarked on a three-year trip to Italy, where he studied Renaissance masters such as Michelangelo, Raphael, and Titian. He also spent time in New Orleans with his maternal family. These travels deeply influenced his style and subject matter.

A Cotton Office in New Orleans, 1873

DEATH Edgar Degas passed away quietly on September 27, 1917, at the age of 83 in his apartment in Paris. His death came after several years of declining health and eyesight, which had forced him to stop working around 1912.

In accordance with his wishes, his funeral was a simple affair with no speeches made. This reflected his private nature and dislike of public attention that had characterized much of his life and career.

Degas was buried in the Montmartre Cemetery (Cimetière de Montmartre) in Paris. His grave can be found in this historic cemetery, which is the final resting place of many famous artists who lived and worked in the Montmartre area. The grave is marked with a simple headstone bearing the family name "De Gas" - Degas' original surname before he changed its spelling.

APPEARANCES IN MEDIA Degas has been the subject of several documentaries exploring his life and art. These often focus on his innovative techniques, the social context of 19th-century Paris, and his pivotal role in the Impressionist movement. Examples include Degas: The Painter of Dancers (2007) and episodes from series like The Impressionists by the BBC.

Degas has appeared as a character in historical fiction novels, such as Susan Vreeland's The Passion of Artemisia, which imagines interactions among artists. His relationships with contemporaries like Manet and Renoir often serve as dramatic material.

Degas's work is iconic, with his ballerinas appearing in countless cultural references, from luxury advertisements to television shows. His sculptures, like The Little Dancer of Fourteen Years, have become symbols of elegance and dedication in pop culture.

Virtual and immersive exhibitions like those offered by Atelier des Lumières in Paris have brought Degas's work to life with modern technology. These events blend his art with music and projection to create engaging, media-rich experiences.

Degas has inspired countless adaptations of his style and subjects. Animated films, such as Disney's Ballerina (2016), draw heavily from the aesthetic of his paintings to recreate the world of 19th-century dance.

ACHIEVEMENTS One of the most influential artists of the 19th century.

Masterfully captured the essence of modern life in his art.

Expanded the boundaries of painting and sculpture.

His work continues to inspire and challenge artists today.

Sources (1)  Daumier.org, (2) Paula Butterfield