Edgar Degas' quotes on painting & life in Paris' Impressionism - free resource, French art history

Edgar Degas’ in quotes - the famous Paris artist on his painting art & life in France’ Impressionism - free resource for students, pupils and teachers in French art history

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Edgar Degas’ artist quotes illustrate the surprising fact that he was a rather active and organizing artist in the group of the Impressionist painters. He attributed a lot to the famous Impressionist exhibitions, organized as an alternative for the official Paris Salon. Degas wrote about his relations with other artists, o. a. his friendship with Edouard Manet.

Degas’ quotes show moreover that he was in fact the only not-Impressionist between all the Impressionist artists, because he hated to paint outdoor. He disliked the color-mix of Monet and other artists; he was very critical om that color-mixture which made him mad, see the quote below. He loved and adored the classical painters - they were his inspiration!. Degas has become most famous for his many paintings of ballerina-dancers. Many of his quotes here are taken from his letters.
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Some selected artist-quotes of the famous French artist Edgar Degas - as a short introduction of his extended quotes in the PDF:

• ’I am busy on a portrait of my aunt and my two cousins… .I am doing it as if I were doing a picture… .The older one is really a lovely thing, the younger one has the devil in her as well as the kindness of an angel. I am doing them with their black dresses and little white pinafores which suit them delightfully’ - Degas’ quote, in a letter to his friend and painter Gustave Moreau, Nov. 1858

• ’Make portraits of people in familiar and typical positions, above all give their faces the same choice of expression one gives their bodies. Thus if laughter is typical for a person, make him laugh – there are, naturally, feelings that one cannot render…’ - quote of Degas, in his Notebook of 1869

• ’I met Monet himself there, and I said to him, ‘Let me get out of here. Those reflections in the water (in Monet’s paintings at the Durand-Ruell-exhibition) hurt my eyes!’ - Degas’ quote, cited by his art-seller Ambroise Vollard, in his book ‘Degas: An Intimate Portrait’, 1927
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  selection of free art-resources on the famous French artist Edgar Degas:

  • extended biographical notes of Degas, on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_Degas
  • artist-quotes of ànd about Degas, on Wikiquote: https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edgar_Degas
  • images of the painting art of Degas, on Wikimedia-Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Edgar_Degas
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    editor: Fons Heijnsbroek / Matrozenhof (FotoDutch on Wikiquote):<br>[http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/User:FotoDutch]