Edgar Degas: The Private Impressionist Works on Paper by the Artist and His Circle - Teacher Packet Produced by Foothills Art Center
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Edgar Degas:
The Private Impressionist
Works on Paper by the Artist and His Circle
Teacher Packet
Produced by Foothills Art Center
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Pictured above, Plough Horse, by Edgar Degas
www.foothillsartcenter.org
Preface This teaching packet has been written to complement the exhibition Edgar Degas: The Private Impressionist: Works on Paper by the Artist and His Circle on view through June 30 th, 2013 at Foothills Art Center. This exhibition is devoted to works on paper (drawings, prints, photographs) by Degas and his colleagues. There is also one sculpture by Degas in the exhibition. This exhibition will be of interest to students studying art, history, French language and literature, and the humanities. It speaks to the values, art styles, personal lives and history of late 19th century France. Degas’ interpretations of Old Master works in the Louvre, the race course, brothel life and his friends and colleagues are revelatory to many who are mostly familiar with Degas’ Impressionist ballerinas. This exhibition shows Degas and his colleagues to be sharp observers of contemporary urban life. The exhibition begins with works by Degas done when he was just a teen experimenting with drawing members of his family and copying great masters in the Louvre Museum. It then takes us on a journey though Degas many years experimenting with printmaking and shows him to be a restless innovator who worked and re-worked his plates so often that he would almost ruin the original image. The prints are followed by Degas interest in horses and jockeys and race track scenes. Degas’ photographs also show him to be a master innovator in a new media. The remaining section of the exhibition is devoted to artists in Degas’ circle such as Pissarro, Cezanne, Mary Cassatt, Ingres, Manet and Toulouse-Lautrec among others. The packet is organized with an introduction to Degas followed by in-depth descriptions of 6 of the works in the exhibition. After each description classroom suggestions for discussions and activities can be found. 2|P ag e www.foothillsartcenter.org
Degas: The Master Impressionist Germaine Edgar Degas (1834-1917) was the oldest of four children from the wealthy De Gas banking family. His mother was an American from New Orleans. For many years the Degas family spelled their name "de Gas"; the preposition "de" suggesting a land-owning aristocratic background which they did not actually have. As an adult, Edgar Degas reverted back to the original spelling. Degas displayed a remarkable skill for drawing and painting as a child, a talent encouraged by his father, who was a knowledgeable art lover. In 1853 at the age of 18, Degas received permission to "copy" at the Louvre in Paris. (During the 19th century, aspiring artists developed their technique by attempting to replicate the works of the masters.) Degas produced several impressive copies of Raphael as well as studying the work of more contemporary painters such as Ingres and Delacroix. In 1855 he gained admission into the Ecole Des Beaux-Art in Paris. However, after only one year of study, Degas left school to spend three years traveling, painting and studying in Italy. He painted painstaking copies of the works of the great Italian renaissance painters Michelangelo and da Vinci, developing a reverence for classical linearity that remained a distinguishing feature of even his most modern paintings. Upon his return to Paris in 1859, Degas continued to draw in the Louvre and in 1862 Degas met fellow painter Edouard Manet there. The pair quickly developed a friendly rivalry. Degas grew to share Manet's disdain for the presiding art establishment as well as his belief that artists needed to turn to more modern techniques and subject matter. In the late 1860’s Degas began meeting with an important group of young artists who were committed to depicting modern life in their paintings. Several of the artists in this group, including Degas, later became known as Impressionist painters. Their meetings coincided with tumultuous times in the history of France. In July 1870, the Franco-Prussian War broke out and the highly nationalistic Degas volunteered for the French National Guard. At the war's conclusion in 1871, the infamous Paris Commune seized control of the capital for two terrifying months before Adolphe Thiers reestablished the Third Republic in a bloody civil war. Degas largely avoided the tumult of the Paris Commune by taking an extended trip to visit relatives in New Orleans. 3|P ag e www.foothillsartcenter.org
Since 1674, the Paris Salon had been the official, government-sanctioned and juried art exhibition in France. The artists who were admitted to the salon were traditional and painted in the classical styles favored by the French establishment. The subject matter of Salon paintings were also traditional; favoring history painting, grand landscapes and portraiture. Any artist who did not adhere to the rules of academic painting and subject matter had little luck being shown at the Salon. Returning to Paris near the end of 1873, Degas, along with Monet, Sisley and several other painters, formed the Société Anonyme des Artistes, a group committed to putting on exhibitions free of the official Salon's control. The group of painters would come to be known as the Impressionists (although Degas preferred the term "realist" to describe his own work), and on April 15, 1874, they held the first Impressionist exhibition. Degas participated on all but one of the eight revolutionary, independent exhibitions mounted from 1874 through 1886 by the diverse group of Impressionist artists. Like his colleagues, Manet, Monet, Renoir and Pissaro, Degas used new and modern subject matter that included middle-class life, singers, prostitutes, jockeys and ballerinas. Just as Degas sought out new subject matter, he also experimented with new, novel techniques and processes. He experimented with printmaking, sculpture and the recent art of photography. Degas was a life-long bachelor and he lived a life committed to his art. He nonetheless enjoyed a wide circle of friends that included Renoir, Manet, Cassatt, Pissaro, Monet and many other artists working in Paris in the late 19th century. During the mid-1890s, an episode known as the Dreyfus Affair sharply divided French society. In 1894, Alfred Dreyfus, a young Jewish captain in the French military, was convicted of treason on spying charges. Although evidence that proved Dreyfus's innocence surfaced in 1896, rampant anti-Semitism kept him from being exonerated for another 10 years. With the country deeply divided between those in support of Dreyfus and those against him, Degas sided with those whose anti-Semitism blinded them to Dreyfus' innocence. His stance against Dreyfus cost him many friends and much respect within the typically more tolerant avant-garde art circles. Later in life, Degas suffered from failing eyesight but continued to keep up with his friends and colleagues. As he aged, he became increasingly opinionated and one friend described him as “a constant, brilliant, unbearable guest.” 4|P ag e www.foothillsartcenter.org
Portrait of Achille Degas, 1853
Graphite on textured, dark cream tone paper
Achille (1838–1893) was the middle of the
three Degas brothers, with Edgar being the
oldest. Degas completed this portrait of his
brother Achille (pronounced Ah keel) in
early December 1853, the same year he
graduated from high school, turned a room
in his home into an artist studio, and
registered as a copyist in the Louvre
Museum. The earliest dated independent
drawing in Degas’ oeuvre, this portrait
displays a curious combination of youthful
tentativeness and emerging confidence.
The soft modeling of his brother’s features
are delicately rendered but not boldly
articulated. What is most striking about the
drawing is Achille’s relaxed pose, his arm
looped casually over the back of a chair. This sense of modern informality was to be the
hallmark of portraiture in the 1860s not only by Degas but also by artists such as Manet,
Moreau, and Tissot.
Degas was fond of Achille throughout his life despite Achille’s failings as a businessman that
brought disrepute to the family name and despite the fact that his brother was later
arrested for shooting and wounding the husband of a former mistress when confronted by
the man on the steps of the Bourse in Paris on August 19, 1875. Ironically, the woman
involved—a former ballet dancer named Therese Mallot—had posed for a number of
paintings and drawings by Degas before the incident.
Classroom Suggestions
1. Have students examine the portrait and discuss what clues (dress, attitude, pose,
etc.) Degas gives us about Achille’s social status and personality.
2. Show students other, later, portraits Degas made of Achille, and discuss similarities
and differences to the early Degas drawing in the exhibition. Do these later portraits
tell us anything that the early drawing does not?
3. Have students research how 19th century French society was organized based on
wealth and class systems. Have students research the Degas family history. Then ask
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www.foothillsartcenter.orgthem how that research helps them to understand Degas’ family background and his
portraits of his brother, Achille.
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www.foothillsartcenter.orgAchille De Gas in the Uniform of a Cadet, 1856-57 Achi This portrait of Degas' brother was painted in New Orleans where Degas visited him in 1872- 1873. Achille, a cotton broker, is again represented in The Cotton Market, New Orleans, painted by Degas in 1873. This portrait may have been a study for the larger painting although in that, the figure has been reversed and the pose slightly modified. This painting reveals the deft hand of the master in its strong sure strokes, delicate washes and muted colors. With his descriptive draftsmanship, Degas achieved a clear penetration of his brother's inner mood and character, that of a prosperous French aristocrat untouched by his American surroundings. 7|P ag e www.foothillsartcenter.org
Edgar Degas, Jockey, c. 1882
In this drawing—a rough sketch in black
chalk—Degas captures the body language
and gestures of a jockey. Sketches such as
this would then be used by the artist as he
composed more complicated racing
scenes that included multiple riders on
horseback. Degas often used friends to
simulate poses of jockeys and he
manipulated them-- like his ballerinas -- as
if they were puppets, moving the figures
around this way and that, to show their
sense of movement and control.
Although horses had long played an
important role in French social life, from
military hunts to royal parades, organized
racing only arrived in Paris from England around the 1830s. Originally held on private estates, racing
was an upper-class diversion attended primarily by males. In 1857, the new public race course
Longchamps (pronounced Long shah mp) was completed in the most famous of the Second
Empire’s new parks, the Bois de Bologne. (pronounced (Bwa duh Bow lone yuh) The races, attended
by Degas, were a highlight of the social season. But Degas’s interest was not social. Rather, his
passion was depicting jockeys and horses in motion, for what could better encapsulate the rapidly
changing modern world than these "animated urban machines", as art historian Robert Herbert called
them.
Classroom Suggestions
1. Have students examine Jockey and ask them to describe how the drawing shows Degas’
exploration of form and movement.
2. Degas made this work to study “the visual grammar” of a jockey. Discuss with students the
concept of “visual grammar”—the form and structure of the way something looks. Have
students examine the grammar of the human figure, creating a study of a fellow classmate in
various poses. Pencil, charcoal and pastel are excellent media for this exercise.
3. At the time of this and his other studies of horseracing, horseracing was an established
leisure activity. Have students research other recreational pastimes in mid-to late-
nineteenth-century Paris. What historic and social conditions allowed for their popularity?
Have students find paintings of these leisure activities by other Impressionist artists.
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www.foothillsartcenter.orgEdgar Degas, Mary Cassatt at the Louvre: The Etruscan Gallery, c.1879-1880 This print based on an earlier pastel by Degas, shows American artist Mary Cassatt (pronounced Ka Sot) and her younger sister Lydia in the Etruscan gallery of the Louvre. Cassatt is viewed from behind—a daring rear pose—but we sense from her pose who she is and what her personality was 9|P ag e www.foothillsartcenter.org
like. Degas wrote in his notebook: “Her slender erect figure, neatly tailored, and her crisply furled umbrella all convey to us something of Mary Cassatt’s tense, energetic character.” 10 | P a g e www.foothillsartcenter.org
Degas and Mary Cassatt shared a forty-year friendship, both emotionally turbulent and deeply
sympathetic, that ended with Degas’ death in 1917. Cassatt characterized their relationship when she
said: “Sometimes it made Degas furious that he could not find a chink in my armor, and there would be
months when we just could not see each other, and then something I painted would bring us together
again.” Like Degas, Cassatt spent a great deal of her time studying works in the Louvre, and Degas
was impressed by her paintings: "Most women paint as though they are trimming hats," Degas said.
"Not you." Degas invited Cassatt to exhibit with the Impressionists in 1877, making her the first
American artist to become a member of their group.
Among the most technically complex of Degas' prints, this one was probably intended to appear in
the first issue of a graphic arts journal that was a collaborative effort by Degas and others, including
Mary Cassatt. The group was intent on achieving new tonal effects in their prints by innovatively
working up the surfaces of etching plates, perhaps spurred by achievements in Impressionist
paintings or by advances in photography. Unfortunately, the journal never materialized, in part due
to Degas not being ready when the time came to publish it, leaving his collaborators frustrated.
Nonetheless, this work demonstrates Degas’ virtuosity as a printmaker and is a tribute to his long
friendship with Cassatt.
Classroom Suggestions
1. This print is from a cancelled plate. Using the description of Degas’ cancelled plates, discuss
with students the concept of a cancelled plate. Why would an artist cancel a plate? View the
print and discuss the positioning of the cancellation lines and how they affect how we as
viewers see the image.
2. Have students research the art of Mary Cassatt. Then have them compare some of her
works—style, subject matter, etc.—to that of Degas. In way ways were they alike? In what
ways were they different in their approach to subject matter and style?
3. Based on this print, what kind of person was Mary Cassatt? How did she spend her leisure
time? We don’t see her face, but based on her pose and attitude, what kind of personality
did she have? How is her personality different from that of her sister Lydia?
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www.foothillsartcenter.orgEdgar Degas, Head, Study of the Portrait of Mademoiselle S., c. 1892-1895
This portrait head is one of a small number of
portraits and busts Degas modeled during his
lifetime. The artist executed at least five three-
dimensional portraits, only three of which now
survive. Of these, two have been identified as
portraying Mathilde (pronounced Mah t-eeld) Salle
(pronounced Sah l). A celebrated Opéra dancer and
performer, Mathilde Salle was known to have been a
particularly vivacious and gregarious character and
was at the height of her career when she sat for
Degas. The fact that she was a 'modern' woman who
frequently appeared in roles dressed as a man, and
who rode a bicycle and played sports perhaps
appealed to Degas, because he also depicted her in a
triple portrait pastel of 1886 and in a small painting on
panel that probably dates to the late 1880’s.
The portraits of Salle have been dated to 1892 on the
basis of Degas' correspondence with the sculptor
Paul-Albert Bartholomé who was also making his own
plaster bust and half-length marble of her at the time.
In fact, Degas' letters suggest that he created his
sculpted heads of Mathilde Salle in Bartholomé's studio where the sitter posed for both artists.
Degas did not actually cast any of his sculptures during his lifetime. This piece is one of 73 surviving
sculptures that were cast after Degas’ death in 1921 in editions of twenty-two. The original models
from which the bronzes were cast, were quite fragile, owing in part to their media, in part to the fact
that the artist's armatures were often inadequate, and in part to Degas' changes of mind. Degas’
friend Bartholomé, in whose studio Degas worked on the sculpture, prepared the figures for casting.
Classroom Suggestions
1. Engage students in a discussion of why Degas’ statuettes (bronze casts of the wax figures)
that Degas did not intend for sale are now so valued by museums and collectors. Discuss the
issue of the bronzes being cast after Degas death in terms of how we view originality and
artistic credit. Ask students to think of other examples of artists who are credited with
conceiving the original design or idea, but then have those ideas made by others.
2. Have students research Mathilde Salle and find other images of her. Then have them
compare those images with this sculpture.
3. Have students examine the sculpture and discuss its seemingly “rough” state. Given what
we know about Degas as an artist, how does this sculpture demonstrate his working
methods and restless experimentation?
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www.foothillsartcenter.orgEdgar Degas, Copy of the head of the Virgin from Solario’s Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (French, 1780–1867)
the Virgin with the Green Cushion in the Louvre c. 1855 Head of the Virgin, ca. 1850
Here we compare a Degas copy of a Renaissance Virgin with that done by his mentor and artistic
muse Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres. The small drawing by Ingres was probably a study done after
a painting by Raphael or another Renaissance master the artist admired. Like Degas, Ingres honed
his art by drawing after earlier artists. Ingres came to epitomize the refined classical style that
prevailed in France during the early to mid-19th century. Ingres was also an exceptional draftsman
who once said that “It takes 25 years to learn to draw, one hour to learn to paint.”
In 1855 Degas was taken by a family friend to visit Ingres who reportedly told him: “Draw lines, young
man, and still more lines, both from life and from memory, and you will become a good artist.” Ingres’
reputation as a draftsman was such that it was said he could “draw before he could walk,” and he
was one of Degas’ artistic heroes. Degas owned some twenty paintings and ninety drawings by
Ingres. Ingres enjoyed a spectacular career as a portraitist, teacher and history painter and he
carried the standard for the ideas of classical art throughout the 19th century. Degas’ drawing, a copy
of a work by Andrea Solario that resides in the Louvre Museum, shows the artist interest in Old
Master paintings from the Renaissance.
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www.foothillsartcenter.orgAndrea Solario, Virgin with the Green Cushion 1507-1510
Classroom Suggestions
1. Have students compare the Degas drawing with that of Ingres. How are they similar? How
are they different? Which drawing do you think took more time and effort to make? The one
by Degas, or the one by Ingres? Why?
2. Compare Degas’ drawing to the original Solario painting. Have students talk about the
similarities and differences between the two. What difference does color make? What more
do you learn about the piece when you view the entire painting by Solario?
3. Have students study an Old Master painting and make a pencil drawing after a work of their
choice. What kind of difficulties are involved in copying from an artwork made centuries ago?
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www.foothillsartcenter.orgDEGAS: THE PRIVATE IMPRESSIONIST: Degas and His Circle
Edgar Degas French, 1834 -1917
Maurice Potin, French, active early
-photogravure etching and aquatint after the original monotype
- master printmaker employed by Ambroise Vollard to create facsimiles of Degas’
brothel monotypes
Annie Ayrton, English, ?-1886
-pastel drawing
-influenced by Degas
Pierre-Georges Jeannio , French, 1837-1917
-graphite drawing, black crayon drawing
-Loyal friend
Giovanni Boldini, Italian, 1842-1931
-graphite drawing
-Fellow artist who’s personality grated on Degas
Eugene Carriere, French, 1849-1906
-charcoal drawing
-leading French Symbolist artist admired by Degas
Mary Cassatt, American, 1844-1926
-etching and aquatint
-It appears that their relationship was platonic and based on mutual respect as fellow
artists. They worked side by side for a period and Degas significantly influenced her art
Paul Cezanne, French, 1839-1906
-charcoal and white chalk
-would clash with Degas because they were both volatile and opinionated. Degas
collected Cezanne’s work
Honore Daumier, French, 1808-1879
-lithograph
-Degas adored Daumier’s artistic observation of human nature, collected his work
Charles Edme Saint-Marcel, French,1798-1863
-pen and ink with wash
-Degas was inspired by Charles’ bold use of color and independent spirit,
collected his work
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www.foothillsartcenter.orgMarcellin Desboutin, French, 1865
-drypoint
-Acquaintance
Henri Fantin Latour, French, 1837-1917
-black crayon drawing
-Friend of Degas, however their careers took different trajectories as Degas turned to
modernist subject matter and Fantin remained traditional. Fanti rebuffed Degas’
invitation to exhibit in the early Impressionist exhibitions.
Jean-Hippolyte Flandrin, French,1890
-graphite drawing
-Degas’ instructor
Sulpice Guillaume Chevalier, 1792-1859
-pastel over graphite under drawing
-Chronicled the fashions and foibles of the French through lithographs
which Degas collected
Jean Leon Gerome, French, 1850
-red chalk drawing
-friends, but were diametrically opposed in terms of artistic philosophy
Jean-Auguste Dominique Ingres, 1780-1867
-graphite drawing
-Degas admired and collected
Charles Keene, English, 1823-1891
-pen and ink drawing
-An artist Degas admired and collected
Alphonse Legros, French, 1837-1911
-red chalk drawing
-Lifelong friends
Vicomte Ludovic-Napoleon Lepic, French, 1821-1867
-hand wiped monoprint etching
-Friend of Degas, introduced Degas to the monotype
Edouard Manet, French, 1832-1883
-etching
-Had a warm, but often contentious relationship with Degas. After Manet’s death
Degas remarked, “He was greater than we thought.”
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www.foothillsartcenter.orgMichel Manzi, French, 1849-1915
-color crayon drawing with white chalk highlights
-Friend of Degas, painted Degas
Adolf von Menzel, German, 1815-1905
-graphite drawing
-held a long-standing mutual admiration
John Everett Millais , English, 1829
-graphite drawing
-Not known if they ever did meet, but Degas admired Millais’ art.
Gustave Moreau, French, 1826-1898
-graphite drawing
-Role model
Edweard Muybridge, English, 1830
-albumin photograph
-Degas followed the news of Muybridge’s discoveries and eventually used Muybridge’s
photographs in his own artwork
Camille Pissarro, French, 1830-1903
-etching and aquatint on greenish paper, only state, printed by Porcabeouf
-Degas consulted with Piassarro in printmaking activities. The repercussions of the
Dreyfus Affair caused Degas to break off relations with this friend
Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, French
-gouache and watercolor
-Degas was friends with Chavannes and collected his work.
Odilon Redon, French, 1840-1916
-pen and ink drawing
-Degas and Redon were very different artists united by their respect for each other
Henri Regnault, French, 1843-1871
-graphite drawing
-Friend of Degas, died early on in the Franco-Prussian War.
Paul Renouard, French, 1825-1924
-pen and ink drawing with graphite under
-Degas encouraged Renouard’s early work
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www.foothillsartcenter.orgWilliam Rothenstein, English 1872
-black and white chalk drawing
-Rothenstein had a wide circle of artistic friends including Degas.
Watanabe Seitei, Japanese, 1851
-ink brush painting
-Degas avidly collected this artist’s work
Walter Richard Sickert, English, 1860
-graphite drawing
-Friend and loyal advocate of Degas
Alfred Stevens, Belgian, 1823-1906
-black chalk drawing
-Maintained close connections with Degas
James Jacques Joseph Tissot, French
-pastel
-Letters indicate Degas and Tissot had developed a strong friendship by 1862, but
Tissot’s desire for commercial success eventually soured their relationship.
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, French
-graphite drawing
-Degas disciple
Joseph Gabriel Tourny, French, 1817
-watercolor
-Supportive and protective friend of Degas
Mortimer Menpes, Australian, 1855
-graphite drawing
-Degas admired Menpes’ work, their relationship was one of mutual, but wary respect.
Cecil Beaton, English, 1904-1980
-vintage silver gelatin photograph
-photographed the house Degas stayed at in New Orleans`
Joseph Goldyne, American, 1942
-colored pencil drawing
-Created a drawing of Degas which displayed his affection for the artist
David Levine, American, 1926-2009
-pen and ink drawing
-a caricature artist who held Degas in high esteem.
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www.foothillsartcenter.orgDEGAS: THE PRIVATE IMPRESSIONIST: Materials I Exhibition 1. photogravure etching and aquatint after the original monotype 2. monotype 3. vintage silver gelatin 4. pastel 5. graphite 6. colored pencil 7. black crayon 8. color crayon 9. charcoal 10. etching 11. aquatint 12. soft ground etching and roulette from the canceled plate 13. white chalk 14. black chalk 15. red chalk 16. lithograph 17. lithograph with Chine appliqué 18. pen and ink with wash 19. drypoint 20. albumin photograph 21. gouache 22. watercolor 23. ink brush 24. handwriting in brown ink 25. bronze sculpture 26. albumen silver print 19 | P a g e www.foothillsartcenter.org
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