Graphic print 50x70 cm in a limited edition. Embossed stamp DONALD ART CO. 1962. Loose sheet. FABRIANO Cotton 300 GR paper. License: Musée d'Orsay
About the author:
Edgar Degas (1834–1917) was a French painter who was considered an Impressionist, though he never considered himself one, despite being one of the main initiators of Impressionist exhibitions. He stood outside this movement and was reluctant to even accept the term "Impressionism."
Like his colleague Édouard Manet, Degas resisted associating with other members of the group, as his refined drawing style set him apart. He said that painting requires a bit of mystery, ambiguity, and fantasy. When you express your meaning too clearly, you end up boring 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 École des Beaux-Arts.
His early works, imbued with academic techniques, often featured motifs drawn from antiquity. After the end of 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 and, despite his deteriorating eyesight, created great works in sculpture, printmaking, and painting.
For the rest of his career, he increasingly used pastels, which allowed him to work faster 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.
