Edgar Degas | Musée d'Orsay

 

On Wednesday I went to the musee d’Orsay to look at the Degas paintings on the 5th floor.

It’s a mixup of race horses (this one is mine)

And lush ballerinas. Everyone loves ❤️ Degas’ dancers 🩰 but his backstory is quite perplexing.

Degas was isolated, an opinionated, eccentric. Some artists did not get along with him. His personal life appeared empty. But he was one of the greatest draftsmen ✍️ of the 19th century. 

He painted at the same time Worth was designing dresses.

I got to thinking about 

Degas fascination with these diminutive figures, jockeys & ballerinas.

So many similarities between two occupations.

Both have shortened work/life spans. Jockeys ride until they are 50. Ballerinas stop dancing even sooner. Both can suffer life-altering injuries from their profession.

Jockeys frequently fast on the day of the races. Most jockeys eat a limited diet, consisting of 600 calories per day. 

Their weight, including their saddles, must be under 125 pounds. Ballerinas are famous for starving themselves. 

But they both wear

Colorful costumes. Jockeys wear the silks of the horse’s owner or stud farm.

Degas’ interest in horses developed after visiting friends with a horse farm in Normandy. They took him to the races at Argenteuil et voila = a new obsession. 

Photography 📷 a new art, played a role in influencing Degas. Particularly Eadweard Muybridge’s film strips of a racing horse 🐎 But the question was, “Are all 4 legs off the ground at the same time?” Muybridge proved conclusively they are not.

Degas was always interested in physical movement, whether ballerinas, jockeys, hat-makers 

Or laundresses. Daily workers practicing their skills. 

But don’t forget Degas’ diagonal, geometric compositions (like Van Gogh, Manet, Monet) were influenced by his collection of Japanese wood block prints.

In fact, Degas was a compulsive art collecter, especially Ingres and Delacroix. After his death in 1917, the 5 sales of 8,000 pieces became the bases of many museums collections in London, Paris and New York.

He saw the extraordinary in the ordinary. There is more to Degas than his best-known dancers.

I’m in the process of adding a bunch of watercolors on Etsy. 

I hope it doesn’t take all day, so I can celebrate 🎉 🎂  🥳

🍾 

Four Americans in Paris leaving the musée d’Orsay