Edgar Degas Comparative Study

Comparative study

Painting 1: Ballet Rehearsal on Stage, 1874 1. Edgar Degas was a French artist. He was born with the name Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas, on 19 July 1834, in Paris, France. He died at the age of 83, on 27 September 1917, in Paris, France. He was famous for his sculptures, prints, paintings and drawings. More than half of his works show dancers. He is seen as one of the creators of the impressionism style, even though he preferred to be called a realist. When he graduated from the Lycée with a baccalauréat in literature in the year 1853, at the age of 18, he turned one of the rooms in his home into an arts studio. His father expected him to go to law school, which Edgar himself did not want so he put little effort into his studies. In April, 1855, Degas started studying at the École des Beaux-Arts. With Louis Lamothe, he studied drawing, under whose help he started following the style of Ingres. Degas traveled to Italy, in July 1856, where he would stay for the following three years. In 1858, he made the first studies for his masterpiece The Bellelli Family. He also painted and drew several replicas of works by Raphael, Titian, Michalangelo and other Renaissance artists.

2. This image

The dancer on the right, who is said to be Ramon Pichot, is painted in very dark colours, almost as if he is just a shadow. This is probably because Pichot died while Picasso was painting this painting. In 1965, Picasso explained that the painting should have been called “The Dance of Death”. As it was inspired by memories of the death of two of his friends; Carlos Casagemas in 1901 and Ramon Pichot in 1925, who were both part of a love triangle with Germaine Gargallo (Pichot’s wife). This painting was made to show Picasso’s sorrow for the deaths of his two friends. I think through a dance it very well symbolizes the love triangle, the three had. The pointy shapes of the three dancers indicate penetrating energy, while they have different emotional