Edgar Degas

Edgar Degas (1834-1917) "I have not met a man, . who could better depict contemporary life, . soul of this life ", . - Wrote about Degas Edmond Goncourt, . one of the most sensitive to the fine art of French writers of the second half of XIX century.,
. He was born in the family of a Parisian banker, art education in the School of Fine Arts, a student in the class of Ingres - Lamotte
. Ingres was the idol of the young Degas, it captivates and engrovskoe incomparable possession of the line, and paradoxically combined with "classicism" acuteness of vision of reality, penetrating insight glance. In the late 1850's during his first trip to Italy, the artist examines and copies of old masters as, . and after returning to Paris, wrote a series of paintings on the "historical" - in the traditional academic sense - the theme ( "Spartan girls stump boys", . "Semiramide lays the city", etc.),
. However, the academic in these studies were only subjects themselves: the ancient Greeks had a look at Degas's contemporary Parisians, and painting differed freshness and inner freedom.

. In the 1860's, the wizard creates a series of remarkable portraits of images, continuing the tradition of Ingres, and at the same time unique individual style
. They have clearly manifested such typical Degas qualities as rare in the transmission model of truthfulness, objectivity, inseparable from the latent heat of feeling, strict noble color, sophistication and energy of the color nuances. Engrovskaya smoothness of writing is combined with a more modern painting style, close E. Manet. Soon, these portraits there, and something more innovative: the "woman with chrysanthemums (1865), the artist boldly pushes the main figures in the edge of the canvas and cuts off her frame ...

. 1860 - 1870-ies - a turning point for the French culture of the XIX century
. The quest for modern artistic language, . search for new means of expression permeated at this time of the poetry of Baudelaire, . novels Flaubert, . Zola and Goncourt, . Painting Manet, . Renoir, . Monet, . Pissarro and other young artists, . included soon in the history of art under the name of the Impressionists,
. Degas to join the movement since its emergence. He visits the cafe Guerbois and "New Athens" - a place of permanent meeting Manet and his friends and takes part in most of the Impressionist exhibitions. As for all of them, being modern meant for him above all to embody in the art of direct "impressions" (hence the name of the flow), and also be democratic, to draw scenes from the thick of popular Parisian life. Aristocratic, reserved, sarcastic, extremely secretive personal life, Degas was obsessed with this passion for the study of reality. Unlike other impressionists, he wrote just figured compositions, but replaced the earlier portraits now come jockeys on horses, horse racing, scenes in cafes and cabarets, milliners, laundresses, ballet dancer and a woman "of a toilet". In all of these appropriately approved a new, clean modern beauty, inherent features of which are honesty, directness, democracy and the severity of the characteristic. Perhaps the best thing about this Degas himself said in one of the sonnets, dedicated to his favorite characters - dancer: ... Dance, beauty is not flattering fashion, captivates muzzle their vernacular, Charuyte grace of shamelessness in half, you have brought to the ballet boulevards charm, courage, novelty. You proved to us that creates a make-up queens, but distance. The purpose of his work French artist saw in the incarnation of the truth of life, which for him was too great to need embellishment. But comprehension of life achieved not by imitation, and conditioned medium of art. Degas emphasizes this conventional pictorial language, the contrast between the "vulgar" nature and the exquisite harmony and beauty of coloring, drawing, rhythmic pattern. He also opposes the dispassionate objectivity in the depiction of characters - and the feeling poured inside painting, bearing in himself and the irony of the artist, and his deep affection for models.

. "No art is less direct than mine" - wrote Degas
. Each of his work - the result of prolonged observations, and the same hard work of translating them into a complete image. In his work there was nothing of impromptu and well-conceived his compositions sometimes make people remember Poussin. But as a result there were images that seemed the embodiment of the instantaneous and random. At the end of the century French art Degas in this respect is the diametric opposite of Cezanne. If the last picture is contained in itself all the immutability of the world order and looked finished in a microcosm, then Degas has always contained only a portion of the cut frame stream of life. Themselves were filled with images of its dynamism, embodied quickening rhythms of contemporary artists of the. That passion for the transfer of motion - this, . According to Renoir, . "sickness of the age" - identified themselves subjects Degas: image race horses, . rehearsals and performances of ballet, . laundresses, . bearing underwear, . gladilschits the work, . washable, . dress or combed Women,
. The works of French masters - a real encyclopedia of human postures and "moments" of movements. But also - bold angles and always dynamic points of view which made it impossible even static motif isolation and stability. Unlike other impressionists, Degas never included in their composition of the image of Japanese prints, but he, like anyone else, had penetrated into this peculiar engravings principle of dynamic vision of the world. His art is a bridge and into the future - to the modern documentary photography and film. Characters seem Degas while the covers are not simple, but "hidden camera". On their women "for the toilet", he wrote: "Until now, nudity depicted in poses that suggest the presence of witnesses. My same woman - honest human beings, they do not think about anything else, and busy with their business. "

In its quest to understand the intimate secrets of life Degas was both sober observer and a romantic, who knew "bewitch the truth". (Romantic was already his own aspirations to life mysteries.) In his work "poetry and truth" always coexist.

. This is particularly evident in numerous ballet compositions, where the backstage "Everyday work" side by side with the magic theater extravaganza taking place on the stage
. Coarse, plebeian become a dancer in our eyes romantic sylph, a miracle of art and poetry is born precisely from the prose of life ...

. In painting, the Impressionists Degas took a special place - primarily because of the role, . played in his creativity through drawing and typical of his Impressionist dissolution of the combination of colors in the flow of light and the plastic forms of certainty,
. Over the years, artists have increasingly favored pastels (mostly in combination with monotype, . lithography or gouache), . attracts his noble muffled and at the same purity and color saturation, . velvety mat, . Living vibration stroke,
. Gradually the style of Degas increasingly taking on the characteristics of generalization and monumentality. Disappear accessories and illyuzionistichnost space, line and color have become an indivisible whole. It is color - the free, blazing, shimmering shades of colorful elements - belongs to the late artist's leadership role. In a color "Symphony" on the topic dancers, . created at the end of the century, . Degas, . remained at large within the Impressionist fixing separate moments, . already made a decisive step toward a more generalized vision of the XX century, . It seems the immediate precursor fauvists.,

. Throughout most of the creative ways the artist also worked with sculpture: painted sculpted out of wax and clay figurines of moving horses, ballerinas in the positions of classical dance and women "of a toilet"
. (After Degas' death, these little-known wide audience statues were transferred to the bronze.) At the beginning of this century because of the progressive eye disease sculpture was the only kind of art masters. His end was tragic: the artist, amazed contemporaries keenness of vision, died almost completely blind.