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Edgar Degas was the son of a wealthy Parisian banker who encouraged his art career. He did well in Latin and Greek in high school, and he excelled in drawing. Much of the time he was in law school was spent copying the Old Masters in the Louvre, so he finally quit to study art.

He had a very limited personal life and preferred to live alone so he could devote himself to his art. Already at age 23 he had a reputation for being arrogant and difficult. Upon receiving an invitation for dinner: "Listen, you must prepare a special dish without butter, and dinner has to be at seven sharp. I know you won't have your cat around, and don't allow anyone to bring a dog. No flowers, and if there must be women, I hope they won't come reeking of perfume. How horrible all these odors are when there are so many things that smell good, like toast - or even manure!"

Degas traveled quite a bit but worked best in his studio in Paris. He was interested in studying human behavior in the shops and laundries and especially at the race track and ballet. He make sketches which he composed in his studio.

One day a friend invited Degas to the racetrack. The artist did .not want to go, but he went anyway. This soon became one of his favorite places to sketch. Degas was not interested in the races (who won, etc.) He focused on the moments between races, or he singled out a limited number of horses and riders to show movement.

Many of his paintings looked like snapshots. In fact, the ideas for his compositions often came from the new art of photography. He cropped the scene to increase the sense of motion. He also foreshortened the horses to make it look like they were coming out of the paintings. Degas also created a feeling of action through the use of asymmetrical balance and negative space.

His favorite place to sketch was the ballet. His early paintings were carefully drawn and involved rooms full of figures. It seemed as though he was a spectator or an outsider looking in. As he spent more time with the dancers the point of view became that of a dancer or a musician in the orchestra pit. He centered on fewer dancers and emphasized the movement. As his eyesight grew poorer he began to use pastels. His pictures became flat, almost abstract patterns of motion: pure moving shapes.

Degas quit painting when he went totally blind in 1907.

"draw Degas" known for his composition

Some information taken from "Edgar Degas:Working With Composition." Scholastic. Art & Man 15:2 (November 1984)