Degas: Beyond Impressionism

by Edgar Degas

This strikingly beautiful book-the first to focus on Degas` late work-presents a new and definitive view of his last decades. Degas played an integral role in reshaping the visual arts at the turn of the century, says Richard Kendall. The artist`s remarkable drawings, pastels, oil paintings, and sculptures involve startling explorations of color, unexpected combinations of technique and media, and a radical reexamination of the human physique.

Genres: Art, Art History

324 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

Edgar Degas (born Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas) was a French artist famous for his work in painting, sculpture, printmaking and drawing. He is regarded as one of the founders of Impressionism although he rejected the term, and preferred to be called a realist. A superb draughtsman, he is especially identified with the subject of the dance, and over half his works depict dancers. These display his mastery in the depiction of movement, as do his racecourse subjects and female nudes. His portraits are considered to be among the finest in the history of art.

Early in his career, his ambition was to be a history painter, a calling for which he was well prepared by his rigorous academic training and close study of classic art. In his early thirties, he changed course, and by bringing the traditional methods of a history painter to bear on contemporary subject matter, he became a classical painter of modern life.

Reviews

[Jeremy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Art books are hit or miss for me. I tend to enjoy the books more when I've seen a lot of the artist's work in person (for prints more so than biographies). This being the case for Degas, this is one of the best publications of Degas' work I've run across. I found the color correction to be the most accurate compared with the original work.