For the Gallery Visit Assignment, the museum in which I went to was the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Throughout all the exhibitions in the museum, the one artist that struck me the most out of everyone was Edgar Degas. Edgar Degas was a French artist known mostly for his work in painting, sculpture, drawing and even printmaking. As an artist, Degas was considered to be one of the founders of Impressionism, which was a 19th century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin and yet visible brush strokes that included pure and intense colors. Although he was regarded as one of the founders of Impressionism, he disliked the label and preferred to be called a realist (to portray real people and ordinary situations with truth and accuracy) instead.
From an early age, Degas’ artistic talent and abilities were recognized and encouraged by his father. Because of this discovery, his father frequently took him to many museums and galleries where he spent countless amount of hours studying the work of artists like Michelangelo, Raphael and many others. Through the years, he became highly inspired to draw and mimic the paintings in which he saw. Right from the beginning of his career, Degas was ultimately set on becoming a history painter; towards his early thirties he soon realized this was not something he wanted to do, instead he wanted to become a classical painter of modern life.
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| A Series of Ballerina Paintings |
Through Degas’ artistic career, he was continually experimenting with new techniques and styles for his paintings. His techniques often consisted of him doing a drawing in charcoal first and then layering pastel over the charcoal to cover it up. At other times he would combine pastels and oil together in one single work. Ultimately these unique art techniques is what allowed Degas to create dynamic images that looked like they were caught in motion. Because of his unique art techniques major key themes in Degas’ Artwork were mostly ballerinas, racecourses, Laundry women, and Milliners (a person who makes or sells women’s hats).
To Degas, he was mostly intrigued at painting ballerinas due to the very reason that he was attracted to the elegance of the costume and scenery; not only that, but Degas was also captivated by the swift and spontaneous movement of the ballerinas. Throughout all of Edgar Degas’ artwork and paintings, the one that came to be most famous was his sculpture the Little Dancer of Fourteen Years, for which Degas showed the dancer in a ballet position while looking up. Judging by how the girl’s head is held up high, to me it seems as though she is showing how pride she is of maybe herself, or it gave me the appearance as that she may be doing something she was not supposed to.
Not only did Edgar Degas’ exhibition showcase paintings of ballerinas and the little dancer of fourteen years, but it also showcased a self-portrait of himself and also what seemed to be caught off guard paintings of other people. In his painting Self Portrait, Degas paints himself looking straight as if he was posing. This was something different when compared to his other paintings because often the people in which he painted where usually painted off guard and not directly looking straight. Although only one portrait was shown at the MET museum, it was said that this was just one out of the forty portraits in which he created. By painting many self portraits at a young age it showed his obsession with both, art and himself.
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| Self Portrait 1855-56 |
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| Portrait of a Woman 1885 |
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| Two Men 1865-69 |
Another painting of Degas’ in which I found very interesting was the painting, which was titled, Two Men. The painting was interesting to me because just like his other painting called Portrait of a Young Woman, I have noticed majority of his subjects are painted off guard. Because of this particular style in painting, by having his subjects off guard, I feel as though it makes the painting and situation more realistic. Furthermore, by painting the subjects off guard Degas was able to realistically show the individuals in their own environment through the poses, which ultimately conveys the individual’s identity. Although the two men in the photo may seem unknown, it was said that man on the right might possibly the painter Emile Levy(a student in which Degas met at Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris), however, there is no name stated for the man on the left.
Altogether, it was fascinating to see artists of who I’ve never heard of before and the type of artwork in which they created. Not only that, but also this assignment allowed me to pay closer attention to the labels to further understand the painting, because before I had paid no attention to the paintings labeled and just looked at the painting as is. In all, focusing on the labels allowed me to further learn about the painting, what it was about and who the subject may be.
To read more about Edgar Degas:
To read more about his style and techniques in painting:
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