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TJ123-8-2009 LK VWD0011 Tradition Humanistic 6th Edition W:220mm x H:292mm 175L 115 Stora Enso M/A Magenta (V)120 CHAPTER 31 The Move Toward Modernism120
defining the outlines of things, observe reflections of color
and light, and honor only one teacher: nature.Degas
Edgar Degas (1834–1917) regularly exhibited with
the Impressionists; but his style remained unique.
Classically trained—he began copying Poussin at the
Louvre when he was eighteen—he never sacrificed line
and form to the beguiling qualities of color and light. He
produced thousands of drawings and pastels, ranging from
quick sketches to fully developed compositions. Whether
depicting the urban world of cafés, racetracks, theaters, and
shops, or the demimonde of laundresses and prostitutes, he
concentrated his attention on the fleeting moment. He
rejected the traditional “posed” model, seeking instead to
capture momentary and even awkward gestures, such as
stretching and yawning. Degas was a consummate drafts-
man and a master designer. His innovative compositional
techniques balance spontaneity and improvisation with
artifice and calculation. In Two Dancers on a Stage(Figure
31.7), for example, he presents two ballerinas as if seen
from above and at an angle that leaves “empty” the lower
left portion of the painting. In this feat of breathtakingasymmetry, part of the figure at the right seems to disappear
off the edge of the canvas, while the body of a third figure
at the left is cut off by the frame. The deliberately “ran-
dom” view suggests the influence of photography, with its
accidental “slice of life” potential, as well as the impact of
Japanese woodcuts, which Degas enthusiastically collected
after they entered Europe in the 1860s.
During the 1860s, Degas became interested in the sub-
ject of horse racing, which, like the theater, had become a
fashionable leisure activity and social event (Figure 31.8).
His drawings and paintings of the races focused primarily
on the anatomy and movement of the horses. In his
studies of physical movement, he learned much from the
British artist, photographer, and inventor Eadweard
Muybridge (1830–1904), whose stop-action photographs
of the 1870s and 1880s were revolutionary in their time
(Figure 31.9).Japanese Woodblock Prints and Western Art
Japanese woodblock prints entered Europe along with
Asian trade goods (often as the wrappings for those goods)
in the late nineteenth century. Though they were new to
Europeans, they represented the end of a long tradition inFigure 31.7 EDGAR DEGAS, Two Dancers on a Stage,
ca. 1874. Oil on canvas, 24^1 ⁄ 5 18 in. A comparison
of this composition with that of the far left woodcut in
Figure 31.10 reveals a similar treatment of negative
space, a raked perspective, and the off-center
arrangement of figures.