Creator story
Surprising fact
Degas's sculpture Little Dancer Aged Fourteen shocked viewers with its real tutu and hair — they called the realistic wax figure ugly and disturbing.
Source: Wikipedia / WikimediaImpressionism
Edgar Degas
Edgar Degas (1834–1917) was the painter of dancers, racehorses and modern Parisian life. Though counted among the Impressionists, he called himself a Realist devoted above all to drawing and movement.
His daring, off-centre compositions, influenced by photography and Japanese prints, redefined how a picture could be framed.
- Obsessively painted ballet dancers, capturing rehearsal, exhaustion and fleeting movement.
- Pioneered cropped, asymmetrical compositions borrowed from photography and Japanese prints.
- Worked increasingly in pastel as his eyesight failed, glowing with colour to the end.
Key works
Three entry points into the world of Edgar Degas
These works make it easiest to see how the artist changed form, content, and the very way art could exist in culture.
1875
L'Absinthe
L'Absinthe is a painting by Edgar Degas, painted between 1875 and 1876. Its original title was Dans un Café, a name often used today.
1871
The Ballet Class
The Ballet Class shows how Edgar Degas turns the language of impressionism into a coherent painted image.
1881
Little Dancer of Fourteen Years
The Little Fourteen-Year-Old Dancer is a sculpture begun c. 1880 by Edgar Degas of a young student of the Paris Opera Ballet dance school, a Belgian named Marie van Goethem.