Limited edition print, 50x70 cm. Blind stamp DONALD ART CO. 1962. Loose leaf. FABRIANO Cotton 300 GR paper. License: Museo d´Orsay
About the author:
Edgar Degas (1834–1917) was a French painter considered an Impressionist, though he never identified himself as such, despite being one of the main initiators of Impressionist exhibitions. He remained outside the movement and was reluctant to even accept the term "Impressionism."
Like his colleague Édouard Manet, Degas resisted aligning himself with other group members, as his refined drawing style set him apart. He believed that painting required a bit of mystery, ambiguity, and fantasy. When you express your meaning clearly, you eventually bore people.
Born on July 19, 1834, in Paris, he studied under Louis Lamothe, a former pupil of the Neoclassical painter Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres at the Académie des Beaux-Arts.
His early works, imbued with academic techniques, often featured themes from antiquity. After the Franco-Prussian War, Edgar Degas traveled to the United States, where he painted his famous work A Cotton Office in New Orleans in 1875. In the late 1870s, Degas experienced a period of profound creativity, producing significant works in sculpture, printmaking, and painting despite his deteriorating eyesight.
For the remainder of his career, he increasingly used pastels, which allowed him to work more quickly and with greater dexterity. Degas died on September 27, 1917, in Paris, France. Today, his works are part of the collections of the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and the National Gallery in London.
