Artists inspire: Edgar Degas - my stories about artists of the past, vol.1. Biography, paintings, stories:)

In my introduction I said that I graduated as an art critic. For a few years I worked at the musium in my city, but finally I became an artist myself. But I still have full head of interesting fakts and storys about great artists of past, which got me thinking: why not to share my knowledge here?:)

So, today it's my first try to make a review about an artist I like, for this time I chose Edgar Degas. At first I want to say a few words about my teacher in Fine Arts Academy, who told us, students, about the artists of his times. Her name is Lydmila Lysenko, and she's an amazing lecturer. She lived for half of her live in Great Britan, and she used to tell us storys about it's histiry and traditions. I remember her saying:

-"In old England all houses have really high ceilings, and it's really cold in there. And if the building is old enough, and the family living in it has a lobg history - be sure, there's a story about ghost in this house. Every self-respecting old house in England MUST have a ghost!"

It's a short introduction:) Now I'd love to jump into telling you a story about Degas - the  ballet dancer artist, as we used to call him as students.

Edgar Degas, "Self portrait"

Edgar Degas was born on 19 july, year 1834 in Paris. There's a common phrase that "an artist should be starving" (by the way remind me that, I should write a blog post about how this idea came to life), but it has nothing to do with Degas, he was born in a rich family, that belonged to the upper strata of society. 

Young Edgar was learning how to paint with copying the artworks of the old masters. His family supported him (rare case for an artist, huh? Especially in our times), especially his father. He belived, that if his son will be patient and persistent on the chosen way - he has no other options but to reach success. Degas made a lot of friends among future famous impressionists, such as Mone, Renuar, Sisley. There's a cafe in Paris where all they met to create and discuss art. It no longer exists, it's name was  Café Guerbois.

I remember my teacher at Academy telling us about this cafe. She said:

-"What do you thing the artists were discussing, when they met? You're art critics, when you meet you discuss art. When artists meet - they discuss where they can buy a cheap white spirit"

I think she was right:) It's a little lyrical digression, and it's true. Even now, long years after academy when I meet my classmates - we can discuss art. But when I meet fellow artists - we discuss where can we get some cheap and high quality art supplies:) So, from the first hands - it's true:)

But back to history:

The first thing that comes to mind when we're talking about Degas - dancers. Ballerines, thouse tiny skinny girls in motion. Degas never was married, and explorers of his art think that his carnal needs vere basically satisfacted in brothels (he has a lot of pictures, depicting prostitutes waiting for a client). But his main passion went to dancers. It's interesting, that he was never interested in primas, only in kardebalet. His main passion was depicting wonam bodys in motion. One of my favorite pictures is this below, "The dancing class".

You can see that not all the girls are standing in beautiful poses. Some of them are tired, slouch, the girl on the right scratches her back. It's not the beauty of the stage performance, it's life indeed, and Degas is behind the curtait somewhere, prying it. Pay attention on how masterfully are the ballet tutus depicted!:) Degas spended more then 25 years of his life on depicting ballerines.

 In year 1874 Degas organized an exhibition that went down in history as the "First Impressionist Exhibition". First two of them were not that successful, but the third one brought to Degas some fame and money. Here I must admit that by that time he really was in need, cause after his father death family bank went bankrupt.

Edgar Degas, "The blue dancers"

In year 1908 Degas became blind. He could no longer create art. Blind, he was wandering around Paris, "watching" the new impressionists pictures with his fingers. Parisians nicknamed him King Lear. When he started loosing his eyes he became really interested in sculpture, the art that is more possible to create without looking, with feeling of fingers. Despite this he never valued his slulpters highly, he even refused to show them to anyone.

Edgar Degas dyed on 27 September, year 1917 of pneumonia and was buried in the cemetery of Montmartre.

To simmarize the basic moments of Gegas art: he's an unrivaled master of depicting a female body in motion. Ballerinas, laundresses, dancers, bathing women - all of them are united by movement, in painting or sculpture. If you're an artist and want to study, how to depict motion figures, these light,flying movements - check out Edgar Degas paintings and try to make some study copys. It'll really help:)

Edgar Degas, "Bather"

Here I must admit that I really put much effort into creating this post:) English is my second, and it's not always easy for me to express my thoughts. I hope you liked my post. If you do- please upvote and follow, it really inspires me to create more long and informative posts:)   

Thank you for watching!:) 

Love, Inber