EDGAR DEGAS, quotes on painting ballet and his portraits in Paris Impressionism by the French artist + biography facts
Edgar Degas (1834 – 1917), his quotes on life and on creating his painting art in Paris. Degas was a great painter artist in French Impressionism, famous for his many ‘ballet dancers and ballerinas’ – pastel pictures and for his many portraits. Degas painted in a rather classical technique. He lived and worked only in Paris and was a close friend of Manet and Berthe Morisot. Degas never saw himself as one of the ‘revolutionary Impressionists’. He almost never painted outside in ‘open air’ and preferred to be a classical ‘Realist’ painter. Nevertheless Degas took a leading role in organizing the first startling Impressionist exhibition alongside the official Salon exhibition in Paris.
* At the bottom more biography facts & art links for the famous French painter artist of Ballets; Edgar Degas. – the editor
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Edgar Degas, his quotes on painting Ballet & portraits in a classical way and his artist life in Paris’ Impressionism
– I said to him (Monet, when Degas saw in 1866 for the first time Monet’s landscape paintings, ed.) ’I am off, all these reflets d’eaux are making my eyes hurt’… …It was full of draughts; a few more and I’d have pulled the collar of my jacket up.
* Degas, source of his artist quote on painting Impressionism art by the painter Monet, from: “The private lives of the Impressionists”, Sue Roe, Harpen Collins Publishers, New York 2006, p. 45 (Degas, French Impressionist painter, famous for his ballet dancer and ballerinas pictures in drawing and pastel techniques; at the bottom some links for more information & biography facts)
– villas with columns in different styles (in Lousiana America, fh) painted white, in gardens of magnolias, orange trees, banana trees, negroes in old clothes like characters from La Belle Jardiniere … …rosy white children in black (negro, fh) arms… …a brilliant light which streams my eyes… …the negresses of all shades, holding in their arms little white babies, so white, against white houses with columns of fluted wood and in gardens of orange trees.
* Edgar Degas, artist quote on his journey through America, from:his letter, Lousiana, America 1872; as quoted in “The private lives of the Impressionists”, Sue Roe, Harpen Collins Publishers, New York 2006, p. 113-114
– ladies in muslin draped on porches at the fronts of their little houses… …shops bursting with fruit, and the contrast between the lively hum and the bustle of the offices with the immense black animal force… …The black world I have not the time to explore; there are some real gifts of colour and drawing in these forests of ebony. It will seem amazing to live among white people when I get back to Paris. I love silhouettes so much, and these silhouettes walk.
* Degas, artist quote on his journey: a letter to Tissot, Lousiana, America 1872; as quoted in “The private lives of the Impressionists”, Sue Roe, Harpen Collins Publishers, New York 2006, p. 113-114
– …had such a realist scope that no realist painter can be exempted. We also consider that Miss Berthe Morisot’s famous woman painter in French Impressionism, ed.) name and talent are too important to us to do without. (Degas was preparing the first Impressionist’s show – in strong opposition to Manet who wanted to exclude Berthe Morisot, ed.) .
* artist quote, Degas is reporting here his preparation of first Impressionist show in Paris: a letter to Cornelie Morisot, Spring 1873; as quoted in “The private lives of the Impressionists”, Sue Roe, Harpen Collins Publishers, New York 2006, p. 119
– I put it (a still life of a pear, made by Manet, ed.) there (on the wall, next to Ingres Jupiter, ed.), for a pear like that would overthrow any god.
* Edgar Degas gives his comment on a little still life painting, painted by his friend, the famous French painter Manet, remark in a conversation with the writer Moore, around 1875; as quoted in “The private lives of the Impressionists”, Sue Roe, Harpen Collins Publishers, New York 2006, p. 117
– Draw all kind of everyday object placed… … in such a way that they have in them the life of the man or woman – corsets that have just been removed, for example, and which retain the form of the body…
…Do a series in aquatint on mourning, different blacks – black veils of deep mourning floating on the face – black gloves – mourning carriages, undertaker’s vehicles – carriages like Venetian gondolas.
On smoke – smoker’s smoke, pipes, cigarettes, cigars – smoke from locomotives, from tall factory chimneys, from steam boats, etc…
On evening – infinite variety of subjects in cafés, different tones of glass robes reflected in the mirrors.
On bakery, bread. Series of baker’s boys, seen in the cellar itself or through the basement windows from the street – backs the colour of the pink flour – beautiful curves of dough – still-life’s of different breads, large, oval, long, round, etc. Studies in colour of the yellows, pinks, greys, whites of bread…
Neither monuments nor houses have ever been done from below, close up as they appear when you walk down the street….
* notes from the Notebooks of Edgar Degas; Clarendon Press, Oxford 1976, nos 30 & 34 circa 1877 ( in which Degas planned series of views of modern Paris, the same time when he sketched the backstreet brothels, making graphic unflinching and even his realistic ‘pornographic’ sketches he called his ‘glimpses through the keyhole’, in which he also experimented with perspectives – ); as quoted in ‘’The private lives of the Impressionists’’ Sue Roe, Harpen Collins Publishers, New York 2006, p. 182
– pinkish and bluish draperies on neutral grey grounds and black cypresses… …The red of Jephta’s dress… … some reddish brown, some slightly pinkish… …Graduated blue sky… …the ground at the front a grey violet shadow… …Look for some turquoise in the blue…(one of his own working notes about colour for the painting ‘The Daughter of Jeptha’, ed.)
* source of Degas’ artist quote on his painting technique, in : “The private lives of the Impressionists”, Sue Roe, Harpen Collins Publishers, New York 2006, p. 34
– …(Degas was planning a treatise, ed.)… of ornaments for or by women… …their way of observing, combining, sensing the way they dress… …( every day, ed.) they compare a thousand of more visible things with one another than a man does.
* Edgar Degas’ quote on the characteristic observation by woman in general, in: “The private lives of the Impressionists”, Sue Roe, Harpen Collins Publishers, New York 2006, p. 53
– What would I want a wife for? Imagine having someone around who at the end of a grueling day in the studio said: ‘that’s a nice painting, dear’.
* Degas’ quote on having an unmarried life as a painter: “The private lives of the Impressionists”, Sue Roe, Harpen Collins Publishers, New York 2006, p. 35
– The artist must live apart (without a wife, fh). His private life should be unknown.
* Edgar Degas’ quote on having an un-married life as an artist, from: “The private lives of the Impressionists”, Sue Roe, Harpen Collins Publishers, New York 2006, p. 35
– Oh!. Women can never forgive me. They (his models, fh) hate me, they can feel that I ‘m disarming them. I show them without their coquetry, in the states of animals cleaning themselves… …I’m sure of it; the see me as the enemy. Fortunately, since if they did like me, that would be the end of me.
* as quoted in ‘Degas by Himself’, ed. Kendall, p. 299
– Anyone would think paintings were made like speculations on the stock market, out of the frictions of ambitious young people… …it sharpens the mind, but clouds your judgment.
* source of Degas’ artist quote on paintings in human life: “The private lives of the Impressionists”, Sue Roe, Harpen Collins Publishers, New York 2006, p. 34
– You must aim high, not in what you are going to do at some future date, but in what you are going to make yourself do to-day. Otherwise, working is just a waste of time.
* Edgar Degas, on his way of painting / working in daily life: a remark to E. Rouart (when Degas was 70, fh); as quoted in “Renoir – his life and work”, Francois Fosca, Book Club Associates /Thames and Hudson Ltd, London 1975, p. 274
– I assure you, no art is less spontaneous than mine. What I do is the result of reflection and study of the Old Masters. I know nothing about inspiration, spontaneity, temperament.
* source of Edgar Degas’ artist quote on his painting approach as a way of classical painting art, in: “The private lives of the Impressionists”, Sue Roe, Harpen Collins Publishers, New York 2006, p. 34
art links for more information, history facts & biography about Edgar Degas, great artist in French Impressionism
* famous painter Edgar Degas – biography and painting art, on Wikipedia
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* more artist quotes of the French painter Edgar Degas, on Wikiquote
