\paperw4395 \margr0\margl0 \plain \fs20 \f1 French painter and sculptor. \par
The son of a banker, he received a regular classical education at the \i lycΘe\i0 . By 1853, howeve
r, he was already showing an interest in painting, making copies of drawings and paintings in the Louvre. In 1855 he entered the studio of the painter Lamothe, a follower of Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, and then enrolled in the ╔cole des Beaux-Arts in
Paris. His earliest works are self-portraits or family portraits. In 1859-60 Degas visited Italy, where he discovered the painting of such great masters of the Renaissance as Luca Signorelli, Botticelli, and Raphael. Back in Paris, he painted various pic
tures of historical subjects and a series of remarkable portraits of friends and families, which still show the influence of Ingres (\i The Belleli Family\i0 , 1860-62 and \i Head of a Young Woman\i0 , 1867, both in Paris, MusΘe dÆOrsay). During this per
iod the artist began to frequent the cafΘs, coming into contact with nonacademic painters like Edouard Manet. He also discovered Japanese prints and photography, which induced him to experiment with new forms and compositions. Abandoning traditional subj
ects, Degas devoted himself to scenes of contemporary life. The horse races (\i At the Races\i0 , 1869-72, Paris, MusΘe dÆOrsay), opera, and ballet are some of the most recurrent themes in the artistÆs work. Above all he liked to paint ballerinas, portra
yed in their dressing rooms or during exercises (\i The Dancing Lesson\i0 , 1873-76, Paris, MusΘe dÆOrsay) with the aim of catching a fleeting movement as if in a snapshot. Another subject of which the artist was very fond was the female nude, represente
d without any idealization or sensuality in the midst of such intimate and everyday acts as bathing (\i Woman Combing her Hair from the Back\i0 , 1865, St. Petersburg, Hermitage; \i Woman Sponging Herself in the Tub\i0 , or \i Le Tub\i0 , 1886, Paris, Mu
sΘe dÆOrsay). As well as nudes and dancers, Degas painted washerwomen (\i Women Ironing\i0 , 1884, Paris, MusΘe dÆOrsay) and milliners. \i Absinthe Drinker\i0 (Paris, MusΘe dÆOrsay), one of DegasÆs most celebrated and fiercely criticized works, dates fr
om 1876. In 1874 the artist showed his work at the first Impressionist exhibition, held in the studio of the photographer Nadar in Paris. In spite of his participation in the Impressionist exhibitions, Degas did not share the aims of the new group of pai
nters, preferring, like Manet, the human figure to the landscape and more interested in the representation of movement than in the study of changes in atmosphere and light. An indefatigable experimenter with different means of expression, Degas devoted h
imself to oil painting, pastel, sculpture, and engraving. The most frequent subjects of his sculptures are female nudes at their toilette and ballerinas. One of the most famous is the \i Petite Danseuse de Quatorze Ans\i0 (\i Fourteen-year-old Dancer
\i0 , 1880, New York, Metropolitan Museum). During the closing years of his career he produced a series of monotypes of valleys and meadows, inspired by landscapes he had seen on a visit to Burgundy (ca. 1890). His last pastels depicting women at t
heir toilette are characterized by bright and unnatural colors. His work had a profound influence on his contemporaries, especially Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec who shared the same taste for subjects and drawing.
