Mary’s Landscape Art Info

Edgar Degas (1934-1917) was classically trained by a student of Ingres and his work shows emphasis on linear drawing and composition. three dimensional depth, and firm contours. “No art is less spontaneous than mine,” he said. The many preparatory sketches he made set him apart from the Impressionists, yet he was counted a member because of friendship with the group, commitment to contemporary subjects and his opposition to official academic painting.

Degas’ specialty was the human form in a moment of arrested motion. He took great care to show his dancers off-guard while yawning or adjusting their slippers. He painted them from oblique angles, typically clustered to one side with a large area of floor space. His nudes were shown doing utilitarian tasks, such as combing their hair, unaware of observation and off balance – as though seen “through a keyhole.”

As his eyesight failed, he turned to pastels which allowed him to draw and color at the same time. Nearly blind, he relied on his sense of touch to model wax figurines of dancers and horses which were cast in bronze after his death.