EDGAR DEGAS, auto-biography quotes by the French painter artist on painting in Impressionism, his life and technique; Degas is famous for his ballet dancers & ballerina like in ‘The Rehearsel’
EDGAR DEGAS (1834 – 1917) was a painter artist in French Impressionism, famous for his ballet dancers and ballerinas pastel pictures and his many portraits in a rather classical technique. Degas lived and worked in Paris and was an close friend of Manet. Degas never saw himself as one of the ‘revolutionary Impressionists’: he did almost never paint outside in ‘open air’; he 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 some art links for more detailed biography and history life facts about the painter Edgar Degas (ed: Fons Heijnsbroek).
| |
Degas: ‘Before the ballet part 1.’, oil painting, 1888 |
EDGAR DEGAS, 12 artist quotes on painting art and life: ballet, Impressionism, dancers, portraits & ballerinas
- 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.
* Edgar Degas, source of the artist quotes on painting in Impressionism, art techniques & life: “The private lives of the Impressionists”, Sue Roe, Harpen Collins Publishers, New York 2006, p. 45 (French Impressionist painter, famous for his ballet dancer and ballerinas pictures in drawing and pastel technique; 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, source of the artist quotes on painting in Impressionism, art techniques & life: a letter, Lousiana, America 1872; as quoted in “The private lives of the Impressionists”, Sue Roe, Harpen Collins Publishers, New York 2006, p. 113-114 (French Impressionist painter, famous for his ballet dancer and ballerinas pictures in drawing and pastel technique; at the bottom some links for more information & biography facts)
- 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.
* Edgar Degas, source of the artist quotes on painting in Impressionism, art techniques & life: 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 (French Impressionist painter, famous for his ballet dancer and ballerinas pictures in drawing and pastel technique; at the bottom some links for more information & biography facts)
- …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. (in planning the first Impressionist’s show and in strong opposition to Manet who wanted to exclude Berthe Morisot, ed.) .
* Edgar Degas, source of the artist quotes on painting in Impressionism, art techniques & life: 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 (French Impressionist painter, famous for his ballet dancer and ballerinas pictures in drawing and pastel technique; at the bottom some links for more information & biography facts)
- 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, source of the artist quotes on painting in Impressionism, art techniques & life: a remark to the writer Moore, around 1875; as quoted in “The private lives of the Impressionists”, Sue Roe, Harpen Collins Publishers, New York 2006, p. 117 (French Impressionist painter, famous for his ballet dancer and ballerinas pictures in drawing and pastel technique; at the bottom some links for more information & biography facts)
- pinkish and bluish draperies on neutral grey grounds and black cypresses… …The red of Jeptha’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…(his own working notes about colour for the painting ‘The Daughter of Jeptha’, ed.)
* Edgar Degas, source of the artist quotes on painting in Impressionism, art techniques & life: “The private lives of the Impressionists”, Sue Roe, Harpen Collins Publishers, New York 2006, p. 34 (French Impressionist painter, famous for his ballet dancer and ballerinas pictures in drawing and pastel technique; at the bottom some links for more information & biography facts)
- …(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, source of the artist quotes on painting in Impressionism, art techniques & life: “The private lives of the Impressionists”, Sue Roe, Harpen Collins Publishers, New York 2006, p. 53 (French Impressionist painter, famous for his ballet dancer and ballerinas pictures in drawing and pastel technique; at the bottom some links for more information & biography facts)
- What would I want a wife for? Imagine having someone around who at the end of a gruelling day in the studio said: ‘that’s a nice painting, dear’.
* Edgar Degas, source of the artist quotes on painting in Impressionism, art techniques & life: “The private lives of the Impressionists”, Sue Roe, Harpen Collins Publishers, New York 2006, p. 35 (French Impressionist painter, famous for his ballet dancer and ballerinas pictures in drawing and pastel technique; at the bottom some links for more information & biography facts)
- The artist must live apart (without a wife, fh). His private life should be unknown.
* Edgar Degas, source of the artist quotes on painting in Impressionism, art techniques & life: “The private lives of the Impressionists”, Sue Roe, Harpen Collins Publishers, New York 2006, p. 35 (French Impressionist painter, famous for his ballet dancer and ballerinas pictures in drawing and pastel technique; at the bottom some links for more information & biography facts)
- 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 judgement.
* Edgar Degas, source of the artist quotes on painting in Impressionism, art techniques & life: “The private lives of the Impressionists”, Sue Roe, Harpen Collins Publishers, New York 2006, p. 34 (French Impressionist painter, famous for his ballet dancer and ballerinas pictures in drawing and pastel technique; at the bottom some links for more information & biography facts)
- 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, source of the artist quotes on painting in Impressionism, art techniques & 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 (French Impressionist painter, famous for his ballet dancer and ballerinas pictures in drawing and pastel technique; at the bottom some links for more information & biography facts)
- 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.
* Edgar Degas, source of the artist quotes on painting in Impressionism, art techniques & life: “The private lives of the Impressionists”, Sue Roe, Harpen Collins Publishers, New York 2006, p. 34 (French Impressionist painter, famous for his ballet dancer and ballerinas pictures in drawing and pastel technique; at the bottom some links for more information & biography facts)
art links for more information, history facts & biography about the painter Edgar Degas, artist in French Impressionism
* famous painter Edgar Degas, his biography and painting art, on Wikipedia
* many pictures of Degas’ paintings and pastels, on Google
* more artist quotes of the Impressionist painter Edgar Degas, on Wikiquote
