Edgar Degas Paintings Comparison and Analysis

The 19th century art movement, Impressionism originated by a group of artists who rejected the official, government endorsed exhibitions. In 1863, a large number of artist were not accepted into the most important event of the art world, The Official Salon. To which they responded by creating an exhibition known of their own, known as the Salon de Refuses which consisted of work by artists who had been refused acceptance to the official salon. The Impressionists aimed to capture the fleeting moment of a scene, which turned away from the fine finish and detail that majority of artists aimed for in their day. They wanted to capture the effects of light, to convey the difference of time, changes in weather, and other differences in the atmosphere,

In the 19th century, there was an artistic transition from realism to a new form called impressionism. This change originated in France, as the world underwent a transition to industrialization. The impressionist was able to understand how light and color operate hand in hand in a painting. Instead of seeing an image as a whole work, impressionist would see smaller images making up the entire piece. The style was primarily made of the use of intense colors, open composition, light and movement and brush strokes. They were mainly

Edgar Degas’ Little Dancer Aged Fourteen is a symbol for all little girls with dreams bigger than themselves. The Little Dancer is a statue of a young girl made from all natural materials, created by the artist Edgar Degas. The Little Dancer has a small head with small features; Degas was not trying to emphasize her face, but her minute features display an expression of hope, almost jovial in a way. The air of her expression conveys the quiet discipline of a dancer and therefore her passion and love for ballet. The legs of the dancer are long compared to her torso, turned out, as a dancers always are. This turnout becomes natural after working strenuously every single day, trying to perfect the dancer’s art; standing parallel feels abnormal.

Impressionism can be considered the first distinctly modern movement in painting. Developing in Paris in the 1860s, its influence spread throughout Europe and eventually the United States. Impressionism was a style of representational art that did not necessarily rely on realistic depictions. The Impressionists loosened their brushwork and lightened their palettes to include pure, intense colors.

Edgar Degas and Claude Monet used different techniques and styles in their paintings. Monet has been described as “The Driving force behind Impressionism”. He studied the reflection of the light and its effects on the colors and also he preferred to paint in indoor places. Edgar Degas was different form another impressionist painters, his style reflected his respect to his old masters. Also, he preferred to paint in outdoors places. Moreover, Degas’s art style depended on the depiction of the art movement especially in his dancers drawings. Also, he used oil paintings and pastels in his drawings.

Claude Monet was an impressionist who used and changed art conventions such as the Salon des Refusés and the world as a source of ideas to create artworks such as “Impression, Sunrise”. The impressionists of the late 1800s wanted to capture the ephemeral moment in time. The artists had a major focus with the light and colour of the moment than with the details of

Edgar Degas was making drawing of the ballerinas and dancers in 19th century. French artist Edgar Degas created hundreds of artworks that captured the ballet world of 19th century Paris. Degas regularly went to the Palais Garnier Opera House to observe the ballerinas. His focus was on their natural movement as they practiced. Exploring the way the dancers bodies flowed through performance. Edgar showed a talent for drawing while young and wanted to become and artist. Edgar spent a lot of time at the louvre a famous art museum in Paris. He loved paint the dancers practicing. He wanted to capture their energy, hard work and effort .He copied many of the masterpieces of classical artists. Most people know Degas as the painter of ballerinas. Degas

This group included Claude Monet, Pierre Auguste Renoir, Camille Pissarro,Edgar Degas, Alfred Sisley and Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec whom all worked together, influenced each other, and exhibited together and independently. A major fact that tied the group together was that they were exhilarated by contemporary developments in the color theory which helped their search for a more exact analysis of the effects of color and light in nature. They did not believe the shadows of objects were made up from its color with some brown or black added like it portrays. Instead they believed in greater depth that the shadow of an object was broken up with dashes of its complementary color, which is found to be very interesting. Impressionism is based on modernity, meaning faster pace and various improvements in the quality of daily life (Gersh-Nesic, n.d.). The key characteristics of Impressionism were light and its reflection, quickly painted surfaces, dots, dashes, separation of colors and letting the eye's perception mix them, commas and other short brushstrokes. These artists are known to jot down things faster and were called impressionists and their paintings eventually became known as Impressionism. The word "impressionist" in 1874 typically meant no skill but the group did not give up on the art they believed in, although they were rejected by academic institutions such as the French academy of fine arts and the Salon. By then end of the impressionist period artist no longer listened to the strict rules and did not care about the opinion of the salon, they were free to paint how they wanted and began to pursue their own ideas. This led to a growing revolution in art and is looked upon by many artists

Impressionists still painted real things it was now that the focus became on natural lighting and movement. Another style that this art piece is associated with that helped create a new art movement is plein-air

Degas had a clear fascination with human forms, in the 1870s he revealed his passion for contemporary subject matter, becoming a specialist on the dramatic world of ballet and theater. In "The Dance Class" he shows us two dancers waiting to be assessed by ballet master Jules Perrot. His lively brushwork and light, bright colors were typical of the Impressionist movement. Their use of color was partly influenced by Japanese print, in what was called in France Japonism

Degas discovered his true interest - Paris - when he moved there from Italy. He drew inspiration from Paris’ boulevards, cafés, shops, dance studios, drawing rooms, theaters and operas. He became well known for his close observations, capturing the close movements of people. Degas specialized in scenes of Parisian life. Viewers were often surprised by his images of popular entertainment or of a back-street squalor. Degas seemed to tease his viewers by showing images that did not feature perfect figures or pictures that showed very normal actions such as cleaning clothes. Degas was seen as the leader of a faction within the group of Impressionists, and his pictures were sought out by collectors. Critics approvingly pointed out that “his work

During the Modern Era of the late 19th century and the early 20th century, many artists were turning away from the idea of painting realistic images. Photography, having just been developed for public use a few decades earlier, made artists of the day focus less on painting as an precise copy of what is seen, as had been done for centuries. Since the Middle Ages, most artists painted exact representations of life. Starting in the late 1800s, though, many artists were starting to embrace the theory of art as an impression of what is seen. Impressionism, the art movement that began in the 1870s in France, was the first real development of this new concept of painting. Impressionists, such as Claude Monet, sought to put on canvas how they

Impressionism as an historical art period is best described as a shift in thinking and focus. This paradigm shift, away from realism and toward individualism, began a centuries long transformation of self-expression in art as a whole. Impressionism is generally considered a French movement and is typically defined as spanning from approximately 1867 to 1886. Impressionism is best embodied by and was perhaps initiated by Claud Monet in such world-renowned works as Impressions: soleil levant which lent its name to the style and subsequently the art period as a whole.

Degas attended the opera and was fascinated by the ballet dancers. He was allowed backstage by a friend. He studied every movement of the dancers, their body language, each pause and every expression on their faces. In his painting the dancers are seen stretching and adjusting their outfits. His fascination was more towards the rehearsal than the performance on stage. The dancers in his painting are seen playing with their hair and ribbons giving little attention to their master. They look exhausted in the painting. Even though this is the work of an impressionist a little bit of perspective can be seen on observing the floor of the room in the

     Impressionism began during the 19th century. An example of an artist’s beliefs influencing his art can be seen in the works of Pierre Auguste Renoir. It is documented that he felt that art should be different from the real world, which can be cold and harsh. He said, “Why shouldn’t art be pretty?” and “There are enough unpleasant things in the world.” An example of his attitude towards art can be seen in ‘A Girl with a Watering Can’ from 1876. This picture can easily be interpreted as being beautiful and therefore it proves that his belief of art is true. ‘Dance at Bougival’ from 1883, is yet another example of the artist and the inspiration for the art. By painting an attractive scene with two people dancing accompanied by laughing faces in the background we see a correlation between his quotes above and this piece. Therefore, one can conclude that Renoir painted mostly beautiful and attractive art.