[Hilaire Germain Edgard]. French painter, born in Paris on the 19th of July 1834. Entering in 1855 the École des Beaux Arts, he early developed independence of artistic outlook, studying under Lamothe. He first exhibited in the Salon of 1865, contributing a “War in the middle ages,” a work executed in pastel. To this medium he was ever faithful, using it for some of his best work. In 1866 his “Steeplechase” revealed him as a painter of the racecourse and of all the most modern aspects of life and of Parisian society, treated in an extremely original manner. He subsequently exhibited in 1867 “Family Portraits,” and in 1868 a portrait of a dancer in the “Ballet of La Source.” In 1869 and 1870 he restricted himself to portraits; but thenceforward he abandoned the Salons and attached himself to the Impressionists. With Manet and Monet he took the lead of the new school at its first exhibition in 1874, and repeatedly contributed to these exhibitions (in 1876, 1878, 1879 and 1880). In 1868 he had shown his first study of a dancer, and in numerous pastels he proclaimed himself the painter of the ballet, representing its figurantes in every attitude with more constant aim at truth than grace. Several of his works may be seen at the Luxembourg Gallery, to which they were bequeathed, among a collection of impressionist pictures, by M. Caillebotte. In 1880 Degas showed his powers of observation in a set of “Portraits of Criminals,” and he attempted modelling in a “Dancer,” in wax. He afterwards returned to his studies of the sporting world, exhibiting in December 1884 at the Petit Gallery two views of “Races” which had a great success, proving the increasing vogue of the artist among collectors. He is ranked with Manet as the leader of the “impressionist school.” At the eighth Impressionist Exhibition, in 1886, Degas continued his realistic studies of modern life, showing drawings of the nude, of workwomen, and of jockeys. Besides his pastels and his paintings of genre and portraits—among these, several likenesses of Manet—Degas also handled his favourite subjects in etching and in aquatint; and executed several lithographs of “Singers at Cafés-concert,” of “Ballet-girls,” and indeed of every possible subject of night-life and incidents behind the scenes. His work is to be seen not only at the Luxembourg but in many of the great private collections in Paris, in England and America. In the Centenary Exhibition of 1900 he exhibited “The Interior of a Cotton-Broker’s Office at New Orleans” (belonging to the Museum at Pau) and “The Rehearsal.”
The Impressionist years, in which such typical canvases as “Women in a Café” and “Danseuses à la Barre” (sold in 1912 for 119,100 francs) showed Degas’s complete break with the academic painters, his realistic outlook, and his mastery of matériel, notably pastel, ended with the eighth Impressionist Exhibition 1886, where he continued his realistic studies of modern life, showing drawings of the nude, of workwomen, and of jockeys. This marked his withdrawal from all public exhibitions. In the following years, until his death in 1917, Degas mainly concentrated on drawings and pastels of the nude, chiefly women at their toilets or in the bath, interspersed with returns to his favourite ballet subjects. At one time he almost abandoned the use of colour but returned thereto later. In his last years, ill-health and a forced removal from his studio prevented his working. Besides pastel and oil colour Degas also handled his favourite subjects in etching, aquatint and lithography. His work is to be seen in the Luxembourg (Caillebotte collection), the Louvre (Camondo collection), the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Tate Gallery, the British Museum, Boston (U.S.A.) Museum, the National Gallery, Berlin, and many private collections. Though closely associated with the impressionists and showing their sensitiveness to atmospheric colour, Degas was never one of them. An admirer of Ingres, and the great classical draughtsmen, he was himself a classic in his impersonal outlook. The increasing preoccupation of his art was the expression of form, chiefly by line, and to this must be ascribed his later concentration on the nude and temporary abandonment of colour. His figures are never impressions, but an elaborate synthesis of many sketches and much observation. An uncompromising realist in his subjects, Degas found in the art of the Far East a starting-point for combining the most ordinary and ungraceful attitudes of everyday life into an original, intricate and harmonious design.
See also G. Moore, “Degas, the Painter of Modern Life,” Magazine of Art (1890); J.-K. Huysmans, Certains (Paris, 1889); G. Geffroy, La Vie Artistique (3e Série, Paris, 1894); P. Lafond, Degas (1918); A. J. Meier-Graefe, Degas (1930).
