Tag Archives: Impressionist

Edgar Degas @ 178

“Everyone has talent at twenty-five. The difficulty is to have it at fifty.”
Edgar Degas

The art world is commemorating Edgar Degas’ 178th birthday. I have always wondered about our preoccupations with birthdays, because there are so many other days to celebrate.  Perhaps it speaks to beginnings, the prelude to being, or maybe it’s simply the joy and freshness of new life.

Edgar Hilaire Germain Degas was born in 1834, Paris, France.  To place this time in history, consider that the French Revolution took place in 1789 – 1799, the Battle of Waterloo and defeat of Napoleon occurred on June 18, 1815 followed shortly thereafter by the restoration of the Bourbon King Louis XVIII to the throne.  But not all were happy.  The republican uprisings occurred in Lyons (1831), in Paris (1832) and again in both cities in 1834, the very same year that welcomed our birthday boy.

Edgar Degas was wealthy, the son of a banker.   His father, wanting a good life for his son, suggested the legal profession.  Degas attempted the legal studies in 1853, but his longing to immerse himself in the art world prevailed.  The École des Beaux-Arts in Paris was a welcome relief to academia.  Soon he was travelling to Italy to see (and copy) the masterpieces by Michelangelo, Raphael and Titian. From that point on, there was no turning back.

In 1862, Degas met Édouard Manet, in front of a Velazquez, on one of many his trips to the Lourve.   This was his introduction to the future Impressionists.  Edgar Degas is usually categorized with the Impressionists.  Indeed, he exhibited with them in seven of the eight Impressionist exhibitions.  His classical training and his dislike of painting directly from nature set him apart from the rest.  But he shared Monet’s love for Japanese prints, which encouraged him to try-out new perspectives.

Degas’ financial background held him in good stead.  He controlled the value of his work by only signing those pieces which he sold or exhibited. His subjects were from his high-born circle of influence: ballet rehearsals, opera houses, and race courses.  His wealth also allowed him to travel extensively:  1) With his brother, to New York and New Orleans in 1872-1873 and 2) To Spain, in 1880 where he etched with Pissarro and Cassatt.

Degas suffered from failing eyesight from the mid 1870s.  This did not stop him.  As a work-around, he took up photography at 61, experimented with pastels, and created small sculptures of dancers and horses .    We lost him on September 27th, 1917, at the age of 83, but his dancers live on in timeless splendour.

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For more on Edgar Degas, check out Clanmother on Pinterest.

The Angst of Edvard Munch

“I was walking along the road with two friends. The sun set. I felt a tinge of melancholy. Suddenly the sky became a bloody red. I stopped, leaned against the railing, dead tired. And I looked at the flaming clouds that hung like blood and a sword over the blue-black fjord and city. My friends walked on. I stood there, trembling with fright. And I felt a loud, unending scream piercing nature.”  Edvard Munch (1863 – 1944)

Speculation was high in the art world this past week. The Scream, 1893, by Edvard Munch was on auction. Sotheby’s had expected the final price to be over $80 million US. They were not disappointed! The painting sold for a record $119.9 million US, which puts The Scream in the illustrious category of “most expensive” works of art. The image of a man holding his head and screaming under a blood-red sky is unforgettable. Perhaps less well-known, Edvard Munch painted several versions of The Scream which form part of a series entitled The Frieze of Life, which investigates themes of life, love, fear, death and melancholy. On August 22, 2004, another version of this painting was stolen from the Munch-Museet, in Oslo.

Born in 1863, Edvard Munch was Norway’s most popular artist. His life was difficult, full of angst. The deaths of his parents (his mother died when he was 5), his brother and sister, and the mental illness another sister, left deep and traumatic scars which surface in his creative work. His adult life was marked with bouts of mental illness which was treated with electric shock therapy. Munch studied art in Oslo (formerly Christiania) but traveled in Germany, Italy and France. His visits to Paris between 1889 and 1892 introduced him to the works Vincent Van Gogh and Paul Gauguin. Munch, along with Van Gogh, is considered to be the forerunner of Expressionism. Moreover, his work echoes the Symbolist work of Paul Gauguin, whom he met in Paris, 1908.

November 8, 1892, Munch exhibited his work at the Artists’ Union premises in the German capital of Berlin. The reaction was intense. His work was considered an “insult to art.” The marketing side of Munch revelled in the uproar and in the newspaper headlines, “The Munch Affair.” I can only imagine what he would think if he read newspapers dated May 2, 2012:  The Scream sold for $119.9M US in record art auction.  Edvard Munch died in 1944 at the age of eighty.  He lived long enough to witness worldwide critical acceptance of the Expressionist movement.

It’s May Day!

Art requires philosophy, just as philosophy requires art. Otherwise, what would become of beauty? 

Paul Gauguin

May 1st originated as an ancient spring festival. It is related to the Celtic festival of Beltane, the Germanic festival of Walpurgis Night and various other northern European pagan celebrations. As time passed, and Europe became Christianized, May Day transitioned into new traditions. Today, my Metropolitan Museum of Art calendar displayed Gauguin’s A Farm in Brittany 1894. What a great way to celebrate the coming of spring. And coincidentally, a print of A Farm in Brittany has a special place in my kitchen, because the colours and subject matter always lift my spirits.

In the year 1893, Paul Gauguin left the warmth and sunshine of Tahiti to return to France for a two-year stay. This would mark his last visit. Yet it was time well-spent for Gauguin experienced an artistic shift in his work. The summer of 1894, Gauguin traveled to Brittany. Breton culture, with its lingering remnants of a pagan past, pleased Gauguin’s creative tendencies for the primitive and exotic. In A Farm in Brittany, Gauguin applied short, horizontal strokes of paint on the farmhouses, a reminder of his earlier, Impressionist works. The dramatic colours are compelling and striking.

Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin (June 7, 1848 – May 8, 1903) led a difficult and complex life beginning in Paris and ending in Polynesia. Camille Pissarro, Paul Cézanne and Vincent Van Gogh were friends and colleagues. Stay tuned for more on the life of Paul Gauguin.

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One last note – I have found that The Metropolitan Museum of Art calendar, which is published every year by Workman Publishing Company, Inc. is an essential tool in my art studies.