The Painter of Modern Life: Edgar Degas

By Alison Cullen

Halaire-Germain-Edgar Degas (1834-1917) (Biography)

Edgar Degas was truely an artist of the modern metropolis. The subject matter of his paintings is very varied. For example, he focused on the ballet, the opera, and the racetracks, among other bourgeoisie institutions, as well as brothels, boudoirs, and cafes. Consistent in all of these paintings, however, are images of the modern city. Degas' art was deeply affected and is a reflection of the modern metropolis in which we live. Degas was a modernist for many different reasons. For example, the voyeuristic quality of his paintings illustrate the conflicting notions of private and public lives in the modern metropolis. In his paintings, Degas upset the traditional compositional balance by using off-center subjects and techniques such as cropping. Furthermore, Degas' revolutionary depictions of women and the female form challenged the traditional notions of gender.   Degas Self-Portrait From http://www.cafeguerbois.com/degasbio.html

Degas, in the art world of the second half of the nineteenth century, was a modernist in every sense of the word. During the time period in which Degas produced most of his work, his colleagues, artists such as Monet and Renoir, were being classified in a new group or movement known as "Impressionists." Perhaps out of convenience, Degas was also lumped into this group. He did indeed participate in seven out of their eight shows, but Degas was by no means an Impressionist. The themes and styles that dominated his work, such as a focus on movement and form, objective observation, and voyeurism were not part of any movement, and had rarely been used by others before him. Degas was a revolutionary. Through his paintings as well as his sculptures, he redefined the role of the artist, and transformed the relationship between the subject and the viewer. He also upset the traditional compositional balance that had been maintained by painters for hundreds of years. Degas' depiction of women was also revolutionary in that he challenged the society's views of gender and of the proper gender-specific roles. For example, his paintings did not display women as the pure, beautiful, and sacred idols that they have been portrayed as by artists throughout history, such as Botticelli or Titian. Degas' art changed the way of thinking as well as that of painting, and remains an invaluable figure in the history of art.

Degas Introduction| Impressionism| Relationship Between Subject and Viewer| Compositional Techniques| Depiction of Women