Relationship of Degas and Manet

Relationship of Degas and Manet in Impressionism

Degas and Manet  were separated from the Impressionists by artistic aims, social class and perhaps by their age. Two years separated Degas and Manet as they had far more early opportunities than Monet and his group,this helped with their artistic ideas and also with the themes of their pictures. In Degas work the genre studies of modern life, the opera and the orchestra were of interest to him.

Degas Work studies of everyday life: Nursemaid in the Luxembourg Gardens - 1871- 1872

Degas Work studies of Opera and the Orchestra: Opera Diablo - 1876

 As young men they became aware of the new 'realist' movement. Manets relationship with Baudelaire was strong around the time he was writing Peinture de la Vie Moderne, Manet was working on Musique aux Tuileries.The mature paintings of Manet and Degas have far more greater unity and economy than the more sprawling compositions of Courbet and Barbizon painters. 

Manets Work: Musique aux Tuileries - 1862

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Degas and Manet rapid lines and uncluttered pictures are the counterpart of his own wit. Their economy and directions were adopted by the Impressionists who ceased to include small details in their pictures just as they ceased to labour for a high finish.

Degas and Manet does not in the least imply that choice of subject was a matter of difference to them.

The highly original and personal themes selected by these painters are more varied than those of the Impressionists. There originality and range can be seen in Manets novel type of modern historical pictures such as The Kerseage and Alabama, this is depicting a naval battle in the American Civil War. Also in Degas genre scenes from everyday life such as The pedicure and the Cotton Exchange.

Manet's Work: The Kerseage and Alabama - 1864

Degas Work: The Pedicure - 1873

Degas Work: The Cotton Exchange - 1873

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There were other aspects in which Degas and Manet differed from the Impressionists. They did not have the same early contact with open air landscape painting.They were both old enough to dislike the an art of social realism. Manet was influence by Courbets art and an example of this would have been Manet's work Le Dejeuner sur l'Herbe. 

Manet's Work: Dejeuner sur l'Herbe - 1863

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As soon as Manet began to exhibit they felt the need to distinguish his art work as sharply as possible as from the works of Courbet. Courbet and his friends were somewhat jealous of Manet for replacing Courbet. Manet and Degas were further alienated from Courbet's circle by their pessimism and political disillusionment.

Degas seems to be political hidebound, he was a bankers son who scorned the rabble and land tradition.If he was painting a model he would even ask her about her race and if she was Jewish he would dismiss her.

Manet who was a left wing republican and a consistent enemy of the empire. The political allegiance affected the themes of his paintings. Some of his paintings that had these themes in it were the Execution of Maximilian. He represented the firing squad in French, not Mexican, he uses the uniforms as a way of criticizing French policy.

Manet's Work: The Execution of Maximilian - 1867

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Manet was more addicted to the Salon than Degas.Degas was by no means a Bohemian and for years loved parties and was less conformist than Manet.Manet was often hard to remark he was already painting his contempories while Degas was still busy painting ladies like in his painting Semiramis.Although there was occasional arguments between both artists they always had the utmost respect for each others genius.There was many differences in their attitude towards painting.

Degas Work: Semiramis - 1861

Manet was far more painterly than Degas, he used a rich, loose brushstroke and gloried in a style that was rapid and spontaneous.Degas and Manet were both interested in new techniques which was called "la peinture claire", this was the laying of light in flat areas of paint and adding the dark passages before the others had time to dry. Degas did not work all over the canvas at one time, he liked to use pure, flat colours without shadows and he painted the light behind objects which flattened the object which meant there was no need for modelling. Degas sometimes said that painters were too fond of using an over loaded brush, when degas used paint it was often thin or refined with essence.

Degas and Manet resembled each other in being illustrators of Parisian life in their home.Manet was interested in rendering elegance and charm, whereas Degas explored the beauty of the "jolie laide"this was capturing general things like someone yawning or scratching there back. An example of this is  The Dance Class where the girl in the left foreground is scratching her back.

Degas Work : The Dance Class - 1874

In the 1870's Manet was regarded as a leader to Renoir, Monet and Sisley replacing Courbet. His reputation may have suffered from Degas supporters in France and in England. Degas friends undervalued Manet, whereas the Impressionists and Degas didn't think that at all.Monet and Renoir owed a great deal to Manet's free,vigorous brushstrokes, his blond colours and the the overall unity of his compositions. His elimination of half tones and the use of tones progressing from dark to light gave the Impressionists the right to paint in whatever colours or tonalities they wanted. Manet was never primarily a painter of landscapes or reflected light, he never abandoned local colours or black. Most of his works was executed in the studio  from drawings that were made in front of the subject itself.

The failure of his one-man exhibition in 1867 and his constant rejections by the Salon had shaken his nerves.He longed for appreciation, his loss of confidence was particularly unfortunate at this time, for he had  recently achieved artistic maturity in such works as Lunch in the Studio. But he was encouraged and influenced by the Impressionists which saved him from this sterility.

Manet's Work: Lunch in the Studio - 1868 

Research of Impressionism

Events leading up to the impressionist exhibtion in 1874

By the end of 1869 all impressionists knew eachother well. Cafe Guerbois on the Rue des Batignolles was the headquarters where the Impressionists artists would meet.In journals from Renoir,Monet and Degas  they had stated that they had learnt alot from the gatherings at cafe Guerbois.

In the days at the cafe each individual artist had a personality that shone through:

• Manet was the dominating personality being ironic and giving cruel remarks.
• Degas commented on the unsuitability of making art available to the lower classes.
• Duranty proclaimed that he was a realist artist.
• Bazille appeared that he had sufficient academic training and he expressed his ideas clearly and held his own in conversation.
• Sisley was very timid.
• Renoir too averse to aesthetic disputes.

Manet believed that it was preferable to move abruptly from light to dark.In the open air paintings the colour of shadows was not actually black but was rich in colour. Impressionists used shadows to unite a picture in one dominant mood.

Nearly everyone in the group was influenced by Japanese art and applied the work to their own taste and needs. Manet was confirmed by the Japanese for his use of patches of colour. Monet followed the Japanese omission of detail in his pictures as a whole.

The painters agreed with the entires that the contemporary scene was their only possible subject matter. Bazille said that the artists choice of subject matter is not really important and that it should be taken from nature and scenes which are before the artists eyes. 

Impressionism was a northern style, Renoir was far less of an Impressionists when he worked in the mediterranean.

Monets paintings had not always been as delicate as it became in London. Seitz suggested that Monet may have found a precedent for such a tonal and geometric composition in Japanese prints or in the work of whistler.This can be seen in the work that Monet did called Hyde Park.

 Monets painting: Hyde Park - 1871

 

 There was a considerable opinion of the extent to which Monet and Pissaro were influenced by the works of Constable and Turner. The two extremes positions in this controversy was that the English painters exercised  a decisive influence or that they exercised none. In accounts from this period in letters from Pisarro two were written both both seemed to be written from different people.

• One letter had said that he was very entusiatic about the London landscape and that he studied the effect of fog,snow and springtime. He worked from nature, plein air, light and fugitive effects.
• The second letter he had discovered that Turner and Constables work had no understanding of the analysis of shadows, Turner used it as an effect for the absence of light. Turner with his use of tone did not apply it correctly or naturally.

Pissaros style developed in England and he and Monet achieved a looser technique and a greater lightness of colour. In Pissaros painting Entrance to the Village of Voisins painted in 1872  he converys the soft spring sunshine more effectively than in any other of his earlier works.

Pissaros work: Entrance to the Village of Voisins - 1872

Monet Painting done in London : Westminister Bridge

Monets Paintings done in Holland

Monet surprised his friends by his range and variety which were evident his pictures painted in Holland, which were different from the ones painted in London. Some of them are less atmospheric freely and broadly handled with scalloped brush strokes giving movement to the waves.

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In France during the war Renoir  had little opportunity to paint, at the beginning of 1870 two of his works was accepted by the Salon. La Baigneuse au Griffon and Femme d'Alger. Renoir would do sketches of different scenes from windows. He had been interested in painting the streets, quays and bridges of Paris, in works of Pont Neuf and Pont des Arts this shows his improvement of light and atmosphere.

The year after the war Pissarro returned to France in 1871, he was joined by several younger friends, the most gifted out of them all been Cezanne.

Pissarros Work: Pont Neuf

Pissarros work: Pont des Arts

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After the war prospects seemed bright for the young artists. Hoschede a director for a Paris department store sold a group of their works belong to Monet, Degas, Sisley and Pissarro. In a result the prices of their paintings were high.

The most tragic result of the war for the Impressionists group was the death of Bazille, who was killed in action at the end of 1870.

The Salon of 1873 was so hostile to novelty that once again a Salon des Refuses was set up. This was unsatisfactory to the Impressionists group and from 1873 onwards the group stopped sending work to the Salon. Long before, in 1867 Monett and Bazille concieved a plan for holding a group exhibition seperate from the Salon. Monet had the idea again in 1873 but Duret and others discouraged him. Degas was enthusiastic about the idea and proposed for a new group exhibition, at first it was proposed to invite some of the old masters like Corot, Courbet and Daubigny but this idea was abandoned. Degas insisted that they should invite some respectable artists who appear less offensive and revolutionary to the public. Artists like Boudin, Stanislas, Lepine and Giuseppe de Nittis.

The exhibiton was opened on the 15th of April to the 15th May 1874 at the Boulevard des Capucines and Rue Dawnou. Altogether 39 artists participated in the exhibition with over 165 works. Between 1874 and 1886 there were a total of eight Impressionists exhibitions.

Edgar Degas work on Ballet Dancers

Examples of Edgar Degas work on ballet dancers:

Name of Work: WAITING
Date: 1880 - 1882

This image consists of a young girl and a old woman who are sitting next to eachother. The dancer(young girl) is very similar to the woman sitting next to her as the woman would have done something perhaps like this when she was younger.. The young girl is making an entrance to the room whereas the woman is making her exit from the room. The umbrella gives us a sense of where they are going and the direction of the event.




Name of Piece: THE DANCE FOYER AT THE OPERA.
Date: 1872

Degas shows a single moment of rehearsal  The dancer takes up her position on the left foreground of the image where she awaits instructions from her master on the right foreground of the picture. Some dancers watch the single dancer getting ready to dance as others go about their business. Behind the main dancer on the left foreground a leg is stretched  through the door, this was an instant snapshot creating an illusion The proportions of the room, the sharp drawing and the soft harmonious light filled atmosphere give the picture a calm,classic quality.




Name of Piece: THE REHEARSAL
Date: 1873 - 1878

This image is an airy, light filled scene but more daring in its effects. In the right foreground a dancer sits in a workaday pose while an elderly woman fixes another dancers costume. The dancer in the right foreground who is getting her costume fixed is split in two cut off by the edge of the painting. The cut offs in the painting is very well done and thought out. The staircase blocks out one dancer only showing her feet while the top of the picture cuts out another dancers upper body only showing her feet as she comes down the stairs to perform.




Name of Piece:  THE REHEARSAL ON STAGE
Date: 1874

Degas is less concerned with the glamour of the theatre in this painting. In the middle-ground the master is involved in his work as the dancers try and perform beautifully. In the wings the dancers are more relaxed ans one girl stretches having no sign of balletic elegance. Another girl adjusts the strap on her shoe while the third holds onto the stage resting her feet. On the right middle-ground there are two men who show no interest on whats going on on the stage.

Name of Piece: TWO DANCERS ONSTAGE

Date: 1874

Degas was very much a studio artist, he carefully worked out the compositions of the painting he was planning on doing. he wandered around backstage, making sketches and taking photos. His designs were created by integrating individual figures and groups. This makes it hard to believe that the scenes he depicted in his paintings did not actually exist. The pictures consist of two dancers the same two dancers from the "rehearsals onstage". There is no ironic comment on the contrast between stage illusion and reality.





Name of Piece: THE DANCE CLASS
Date: 1874

Degas worked hard to portray that there is such a thing as a male ballet dancer and in this picture he uses "James Perrot" a famous ballet dancer in his old age. In the centre of the picture there is the man leaning on a stick which he uses to call the attention of the dancers by beating it off the ground. The man brings the eye path to him first but the direction of the floorboards brings our eyes to the obedient pupil. Our eye is then led by t he perspective to the back of the room where a girl with the blue sash fixes her dress, it then leads to the cluster of girls where a mother consoles her daughter. In the foreground there is a small dog at the feet of the ballet dancer nearest to the viewer.





Name of Piece; DANCER POSING FOR A PHOTOGRAPH
Date: 1875

In the early 1870s Degas did a creative work of ballet subjects. He explores the effects of light coming from behind subjects and figures. in the background the icy quality of light coming through the translucent curtains create a chilliness and bareness to the dance studio. The dancer in the photo is striking a pose in front of a mirror, the edge of the mirror positioned at the right foreground juts out. Yet again in this picture the use of the edge of the picture makes the viewer create there own eye-path for the rest of the mirror shape.





Name of Piece: THE STAR
Date: 1877

This painting is different to most of Degas work, the reason is he captures an image during a performance and not during the dancers rehearsing or exercising. The viewpoint is high as Degas was looking down on the dancer from a height. Behind the dancer in the foreground there are dancers waiting in the wings for there turn. There is also a man in the left background of the picture  in which we can only see his lower body and not his face, this creates a sense of suspense and wonder to the viewer. The use of pastels is done effectively by Degas as he captures the fluffiness and translucent effect of the dancers tutu.





Name of Piece: DANCER WITH BOUQUET CURTSEYING
Date: 1877

This picture is of a ballet dancer after she has performed, she is close up to the foreground acknowledging the audiences applause.  In the background both left and right the dancers and orientals are  posed statusquesly at a discreet distance behind her. A dancer appears to be stretching and scratching where another steps out impatiently trying to receive her applause.






Name of Piece:  DANCERS IN BLUE
Date: 1889

Degas experimented during the 1890s with some color prints and oil painting on landscapes. In this late period Degas style changed radically. the figures in the picture are large and are viewed up closely filling the page unlike the other previous work done by Degas where he had plenty of space around the subject in the picture. The closeness and scale of the dancers make it hard to see what the whole scene looks like, the figures are adjusting there costumes before they go onstage.The color palette used is very limited as the color of the dancers skin is contrasted by the colors used on the dancers dresses and the set behind them.

Research on Edgar Degas

Edgar Degas and his life

Early life:

Degas was born on July 19th 1834 in Paris.His father Auguste De Gas was a banker.Degas studied drawing at Parisian Lycee, Louis Le Grand. He left Lycee in 1853 as he registered as a copyist and also a lawyer. He eventually told his father that he could not go on with law and was allowed to continue his vocation as an artist.

Early Influences:

Degas entered Ecole Des Beaux - Arts in April 1855. He chose Louis La Monthe as his teacher. Lamonthe had a passion for drawing and admired italian masters from the 15th and 16th centuries. Degas left for Naples in 1856 to visit relatives and undertake tours. He has encounters with Gustave Moreau in early 1858 in Rome. The french artists had no contact with the Italian artists. Degas developed his own medium called "essence", he used turpentine as a thinner. The results was dryness and delicacy of an eggshell.

Return To Paris:

Degas returned to Paris in 1859. He focused on work by Eugene Delacroix and his coloristic values. He left his fathers appartment and he moved to a studio on Rue De laval in the ninth arrondisemnet where he remained for his entire life.

First Success:

During the 1860s Degas remained unknown to the public. He changes alliances, replacing Moreau with James Tissot and Edourd Manet. He became the leading figure of the Impressionist artists along with Auguste Renoir, Alfred Sisley, Claude Monet and Paul Cezanne. In 1872 Degas became more confident with his own talents and embraced new influences from Ingres drawings and also Delacroixs colors.

Preferred Genres:

Degas preferred  to do more portraits than any other genres. Some other subjects he did though was landscapes and contemporary life. Until he returned to Italy he did alot of family portraits and self portraits.

Realism:

Naturalism is a progressive form of realism. Degas co organized independent exhibitions of the impressionists. Degas showed great importance to picture frames especially for his own work. The colors and the profiles  for the frames were designed by himself. The term "Impressionists" arised from Claude Monets painting Impression Sunrise. Degas emphasis on drawing and urban subject matters distinguished his works from Monets.

Innovations:

Degas fascination with technical inventions was evident in his printmaking, his use of traditional techniques like pastel and distemper was well known.  Both of these are fast drying allowing him to make quick changes to his work. He found the techniques worked well for depicting performing arts. Using the stump of his fingers created tonal areas, powdery pigments of pastel sticks with brush and water created fluid passages of color.

Artistic Maturity:

At the end of the 1880s Degas exhibited only in a few public places his attention was turned to art journals in Paris. He influenced artists Paul Gaughin, Georges Seurat, Henri - Toulouse Lautrec, Mary Cassat and sculptor Albert Bartholome. From 1886 onwards he stopped keeping notebooks. 

In 1890 his work resembled an aging man:

• Wit and humor replaced serious tone.
• Color was more intense.
• Line increased with vigor and expressive power.
• Space theatrical or ambiguous.

In 1912 he left his studio because of demolition and that followed by him stopping to work.

Portrait of Edgar Degas

                                    

Decision on artist

Chosen Artist

The artist I decided to chose was 

Edgar Degas.

The reason I chose Edgar Degas was the combination of the videos "Thought of You" and " Invention of Love" gave me an interest idea that would work nicely with Edgar Degas work. I have always had an interest in his work and but the work that i really preferred was his work done of the ballet dancers. I found these appealing to me and the way he could capture the movement and gracefulness of the dancers was very well done.         

research stage 1

Gathering and Exploring

• The third piece of work I decided to focus on was "Invention of Love". This piece was done by the artist Andrey Shushkov. This is an animation piece which is done through silhouettes form. The story which was told and the silhouette video was very interesting and very different to the other two pieces of work that i viewed.
• The story begins with a man picking a rose and kissing it. This then changes to a woman which has the moon behind her.
• The man then comes galloping on a horse towards the woman and the horse is controlled by the man where it picks up a rose and gives it to the woman.
• The clip then changes to a wedding where the man and woman are been saying there goodbyes and are sent of on a hot air balloon where this takes them to the city.
• The hot air balloon is blown over the view of the city where the scene changes to a  house scene where the man is working and the woman decided to go for a walk. On her walk the woman discovers that everything she comes into contact with is now mechanized. 
• When she returns home she discovers that the rose in which the man gave her died and now this is also mechanized so goes outside on a hunt to find a rose. When she does find one she begins to cough falling to the ground later found dead.
• This gets too much the loss of his wife so he builds a robot version of his wife.
• The beginning and ending of he story is very similar as both starts and ends with the man picking a rose and kissing it.

Link for Video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTdzCAGH3lU

Images  of Invention of Love:

                               

Research stage 1

Gathering and Exploring

• The second piece I looked up was another animation piece called "Thought of You". This animation piece is a series of gestural drawings which are placed one after another making the figures look like they are dancing and moving. The quick sharp marks of the figures moving is very interesting but the way in which the mans outline is a different color to the girls makes you question the reason why this is done. The backing track for this video has lyrics which was different to the other animation pieces I viewed. This makes it easier to understand the meaning behind the animation of what is going on. 
• The person who did this piece was "Ryan Woodward". Ryan Woodward began his career as a designer and storyboard artist in 1995. 
• He worked for Warner Brothers Feature Animation ,Sony Pictures, Marvel Entertainment and Dreamworks Pictures. 
• In 2009 Ryan created 9 animated sequences, he is an assistant professor of the animation program at Brigham Young University. He has a BFA from brigham Young University and an MFA from the Academy of Art University. He is currently a member of IATSE Local 800, the art directors guild.

Link for Video:  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBk3ynRbtsw 

Link for Ryan woodwards website:

http://ryanwoodwardart.com/

Images of Ryan Woodward work "Thought of You"