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Capturing motion

Edgar Degas was fascinated with the psychology of movement

CAPTURING ELEGANCE Dance Class at the Op‚ra captured Degas's interest in ballerinas

Hilaire-Germain Edgar Degas was born on July 19, 1834, in Paris. The son of a wealthy banker, he started to study law but discontinued his studies. Though Degas took part in all the Impressionist exhibitions, his fascination with the psychology of movement, draughtsmanship, portraiture, and composition set him apart from the Impressionists. He worked in many mediums but preferred pastels and is best known for his paintings and bronzes of ballerinas and racehorses.

Deeply influenced by Jean Auguste Ingres, Degas studied at the Ecole des Beaux Arts till 1854 when he left for Italy where he stayed for five years studying Renaissance art. Degas gave up painting self-portraits when he was 31 — it was the Other he was fascinated with. Like he said once: "Personally, I don't like cabs. You don't see anyone (in them). That's why I love to ride on the omnibus — you can look at people. We were created to look at one another, weren't we?" Degas never married. The reason he gave was: "I would have been in mortal misery all my life for fear my wife might say, `That's a pretty little thing,' after I had finished a picture."

On his return to Paris, he painted in a combination of romantic and classical styles. It was in Paris that he met Édouard Manet and turned his eye on contemporary themes inspired by the critic Duranty. In the early 1870s, the ballerina became his favourite subject. In 1881 he exhibited a sculpture Little Dancer. He travelled to Louisiana in 1872 and was there for five months. As his eyesight failed him, he turned increasingly to sculpture. An avid art collector, at 80 Degas said of Cubism: "It seems even more difficult than painting." He died on September 27, 1917, in Paris.

MINI ANTHIKAD-CHHIBBER

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