Edgar Degas
19 July 1834 – 27 September 1917
Edgar Degas (1834-1917) was a French painter, sculptor, and printmaker, best known for his depictions of ballet dancers, racehorses, and scenes of Parisian life. A founding organizer of the Impressionist exhibitions, he preferred to call himself a realist, and his mastery of drawing and unusual compositions made him one of the most influential artists of the nineteenth century.
Lived at the same time
Well-documented people whose lives overlapped with Edgar Degas.
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Life events
Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas was born in Paris into a moderately wealthy banking family.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgDegas completed his secondary education at the Lycée Louis-le-Grand in Paris with a baccalauréat in literature.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgAbandoning law studies, Degas enrolled at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, studying drawing under Louis Lamothe, a disciple of Ingres.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgDegas spent three years in Italy, copying Renaissance masters in Naples, Rome, and Florence, a period that shaped his classical draughtsmanship.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgDegas stayed with his mother's relatives in New Orleans, where he painted A Cotton Office in New Orleans, the first of his works purchased by a museum.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgDegas was a founding member of the independent group of artists whose 1874 Paris exhibition gave the Impressionist movement its name, and he showed work in most of the group's exhibitions.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgDegas showed his wax sculpture Little Dancer Aged Fourteen at the sixth Impressionist exhibition, the only sculpture he exhibited in his lifetime.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgAs his eyesight deteriorated, Degas increasingly worked in pastel and sculpture, producing boldly coloured late studies of dancers and women bathing.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgDegas died in Paris at the age of 83, nearly blind and having ceased working several years earlier, and was buried in the family vault in Montmartre Cemetery.
Source: en.wikipedia.org