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Edgar Degas (1834-1917),
French painter and sculptor,
known especially for his paintings
of ballet dancers. Other subjects
that he frequently returned
to include horse races, women
bathing, and portraits of friends
and relatives. Degas combined
a modern focus on the creation
of unusual compositions and
the rendering of movement with
a traditional emphasis on skillful
drawing. An accomplished sculptor
as well as painter, he molded,
in wax and clay, exquisite small
statues of dancers, female bathers,
and horses in motion.
Degas is usually classed
with the impressionists, but
he stood somewhat apart from
the other artists in this group.
He did not share the impressionists’
fascination with natural light
and its effects, and he disliked
painting directly from nature,
preferring instead to work in
the studio. Moreover, Degas
had little interest in landscape—the
primary subject matter of the
impressionists—and concentrated
instead on the human figure.
Also unlike the impressionists,
Degas was interested in drawing
and emphasized line in his work.
However, Degas showed his work
in seven of the eight exhibitions
that the impressionists organized
between 1874 and 1886. See also
Impressionism.
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