Could he be a misogynist: who is Edgar Degas?

Edgar de Gas (later merged by himself as Degas) was born on July 19, 1834, in Paris, to a wealthy family, the eldest of five children. The death of his mother, whom he loved very much when he was only 13 years old, affects him deeply. Even if he enrolls in law school, he does not continue. His father, a banker, is interested in theater and music, so he supports his son's inclination toward art.

Degas' younger brother Achille, who is a Navy student, later goes to America to work in the family's cotton business in New Orleans. Degas also drew it with his family. The portrait is one of the paintings reflecting the artist's first style. The influence of the French painter Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, whom Degas admired, is visible. But the relaxed pose and look of the young student are unique to him. In his portraits, he reflects the person psychologically in depth. This is also seen in his later works. Between 1855 and 1865, he made portraits of his family due to strong family ties.

Edgar Degas (19 July 1834 – 27 September 1917) was a French Impressionist artist famous for his pastel drawings and oil paintings. Degas also produced bronze sculptures, prints and drawings. Degas is especially identified with the subject of dance; more than half of his works depict dancers.

In 1852, he turned a room in his house into a studio, and the next year he began working with the painter Félix-Joseph Barrias. He develops his knowledge of patterns by working on copies of the works of the old masters in the Louvre. In 1854 he works with the painter Louis Lamothe. Lamothe is a student of Ingres, whom he admires. Ingres, whom he met in 1855, said to him, “Draw lines, young man. “Many lines”. That same year, Degas was admitted to the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts. He goes to Italy. There he studied academic and classical art techniques by copying the works of important Renaissance artists such as Michelangelo, Raphael, and Titian. Returning to Paris in 1859, he went to Normandy during these years to visit his childhood friend Paul Valpinçon, and during this visit, he began to draw pictures of horses.

In 1865, he left historical subjects aside and focused on portraits. He befriends Édouard Manet. Manet introduces the painters who will be known as Impressionists in the coming years to Degas. All these painters gather at the Café Guerbois in Paris. He also starts going to the same cafe frequently. Degas shunned the Impressionists, although he shared most of Manet's views. They lean towards light and vibrant colors. Degas, who strictly adheres to the balance and logic of the old masters, seeks immutability and eternity in people and things.

Degas participated as a gunner in the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71) during the siege of Paris and fell ill as a result of a severe cold during the war. After the war, he went to New Orleans with his brother René in 1872. He remained there until April 1873. He paints the famous Cotton Bureau painting in New Orleans.

Returning from the USA to France, Degas exhibited his paintings in his first exhibition on April 15, 1874, together with the Impressionists, although their understanding of art did not match. The exhibition received a great response. Critics can't just beat up Degas. But in his second exhibition, which opened two years later, one of the famous art critics, Albert Wolff, wrote the following in Le Figaro Newspaper.

“If you want to try explaining to Mr. Degas that he was wrong. Tell him that there are some features in art called pattern, color, creation, and will. He'll laugh in your face and call you reactionary."

L'Absinthe, which shows a couple drinking in a bar, is considered an attack on Victorian morals at the time it was made. Absent is a hallucinatory liquor with high alcohol content. When it was exhibited in 1892, it led to shouts "Isn't there anyone else to be painted other than these vile and rude people?", "It makes our beautiful France seem full of alcoholics". The fact that the models subject to the painting are actress Ellen Andre and bohemian painter Marcellin Desboutin increases the comments and speculations.

Degas' aim in this painting is to capture a real moment from everyday life rather than social criticism. Degas depicts a woman who is described as a prostitute, rests her heels, resting the front sole of her feet, which hurts the most when wearing heels, looking at a fixed point with empty eyes, her hands resting comfortably in her lap, and a man who is distracted, but with red-rimmed eyes while smoking his pipe, and the shadows of the figures. shows. Absent is a painting of solitude depicted with extraordinary reality, describing how far apart two people are from each other in their own troubles. Its hallmark and the feature that makes it talk so much is that it makes you feel that you want to say much more than what it actually shows by putting the figures forward and drawing most of the empty bar.

Degas abandons his youthful academic drawings and develops a brand new repertoire of erasing, scraping, fingerprinting, and paint-scanning, which will later become his signature. This is the monotype, a graphic technique that he met and passionately adopted in the 1870s. Drawing with black ink on a metal plate and printing it on paper is a method that results in a single print. There are also monotype prints where Degas uses oil instead of ink. The artist sees the monotype as an excellent tool to convey the changing nature of contemporary urban life.

Gesture, grace, color, and movement, which reveal the essence of ballet, are the features that fascinated Edgar Degas, who stands close to both realism and impressionism with his works, throughout his artistic life. Degas lives close to Le Peletier Street, where the Paris Opera House is located, in the late 1860s, when he became interested in ballet. The artist, who has been a regular in opera since his youth, was also helped by his musician friends. The artist was able to sit in the audience seats and work, as well as attend rehearsals.

In addition to attending as a spectator, Degas regularly goes backstage and dance studio of the Paris Opera House, where he met through a friend who plays in the orchestra. At that time, the opera is still located on Le Peletier Rue and had not yet moved into the building designed by Garnier. From the 1870s until his death, Degas' favorite subjects were ballerinas at work, at rehearsal, or at rest. It tirelessly explores the theme, which includes many variations in posture and stance. It was training and rehearsals that interested him more than stage performance and the limelight. He mostly made use of his memory and sketches while making his paintings.

After 1890, his eyes got worse, and in 1908 he began to have problems with vision and even hearing problems. He has to give up the painting altogether. This makes Degas a grumpy, angry, sullen person. He never marries or is ever talked about with a woman, so although there are rumors that he is misogynistic, the most elegant ballerinas have come to life in his paintings.

Degas died on September 27, 1917, and was buried in the Montmartre cemetery. Because of the war, no one was present at his funeral but a few friends.