Edgar Degas Biography • French artist and sculptor

Edgar Degas was a French artist and sculptor. He is famous for his amazing works of art, paintings, prints and drawings. He painted many of his paintings on Ballet dance and dancers. Edgar was one of the founding members of impressionist movement, but among the impressionist painters, he had a remarkable likeness with the realist style of painting. He is also famous for his paintings of nudes and portraits which contain complexities of human mind and the isolation of living in an artificial civilization.

Degas born on 19 July in 1834 in Paris, France. His father Auguste was a banker and mother Celestine was an amateur singer and pianist. His family was economically middle class. He admitted into a secondary boy’s high school in Paris. He received an education with classical quality.

Degas got an amazing skill of drawing from his childhood. His father often used to encourage him. In 1853 the authority of the Louvre gave him permission to copy the masterpieces of the museum. He successfully reproduced some of the paintings of Raphael and contemporary painters like Delacroix. He admitted into Ecole Des Beaux Arts in 1855 but left it after one year. After that, he spent three years in traveling and painting. He went Italy to achieve the inner sign of the renaissance painters like da Vinci and Michelangelo.

Degas Returned to Paris in 1859 and started to draw portraits of different influential persons. He tried to have the attention of traditional critics but failed. He met Edouard Manet in 1862. These two great painters became rivals. During the Franco-Prussian war, Degas went outside of Paris. He returned to Paris in 1873 and with his fellow artists formed the impressionist group. He painted many of his works on ballet dancers. The next 12 years he developed his distinguished style to study the nature, nude and dancers through his paintings. He was one of the greatest creators among the impressionists.

Edgar degas didn’t get married, but he loved American artist Mary Cassatt. He became an art collector in the beginning of the 20th century. He influenced many of the post-impressionist artists. Degas died on 27 September in 1917 in Paris.