July 19, 2010

A Shout out to Edgar Degas!

Happy Birthday to Edgar Degas , master pastelist. He caught the intimate, quiet and personal moments of his subjects. I always feel as though I am gazing back through time at a real fleeting moment. Degas also was a wonderful pastelist and is well known for using the famed Roche pastels check this link to see the pastels he used which are still being made today.

Edgar Degas
degas_1_gr_copyrighted

Edgar Degas (1834-1917)
Vor dem Spiegel,um 1889
© Hamburger Kunsthalle / bpk
Photo: Elke Walford



Pastel painting of woman trying on hat, At the Milliner's by Degas.
At the Milliner's by Hilaire-Germain-Edgar Degas
is a pastel on pale gray woven paper, laid down on
silk bolting (30 x 34 inches). This work can be seen at
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York



His compositions show cropping , close ups and the use of diagonals. He is known for using many sketches to create a single composition. He also used photography and had an early Kodak camera. I , of course love his pastels but Degas used beaucoup media. He painted in oils, sculpted in clay, drew all the time and used the printmaking medium. He would create monotypes and work back into them using oils and pastel to create a richer image.

He came from the wealthy de Gas family of France who made their money in banking in Italy. His mother was a Musson and her family was Creole and became wealthy in the Louisiana cotton business. He was to spend three years as a young man in Italy studying and being influenced by Italian art. He also spent almost a year in New Orleans visiting his American family. His family as they read, and did small household chores is often the subject of his art.

Give yourself a Degas celebration and look at his work this week. Felicitations a Degas!

4 comments:

Eugenie Torgerson said...

Thank you for the reminder of the birthdate and the vivid work. Here is a French question: I had an art professor who insisted that the real pronunciation of Degas's name was nearly hissed "Deh-gasssss" because that is the regional and familial way. He said that you could tell the level of a person's art education by the way he either said "Deh -gah" or the true way. He was an intellectual snob, as you can guess.
So what do you think?

Carole Buschmann said...

To my knowledge Degas's family was not from the southern provinces,I would have to research that. He was born in Italy. His mother returned to France during America's Civil War and they were creole. Although his mother died young and he was raised with his father's family. So I need to look up where his family home was.

Carole Buschmann said...

Correction his father was Neapolitan, Edgar was born in Paris and seems to have been brought up in the upper class Parisian milieu- so as to the pronunciation of his last name I will have to ask to verify. Tres interessant!

Carole Buschmann said...

Correction his father was Neapolitan, Edgar was born in Paris and seems to have been brought up in the upper class Parisian milieu- so as to the pronunciation of his last name I will have to ask to verify. Tres interessant!

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