Priya Kapoor
Impressionist painter Edgar Degas is known for his images of Parisian life, including dancers, laundresses, and street women. Degas rejected the Impressionist label, preferring to be called a realist, and his work reflects his deep respect for the old masters. Degas was fascinated with the labour of Parisian laundresses, a presence in the city at the time, and created about 30 depictions of them. He also painted dancers, not because he cared about ballet as an art form, but because he was interested in rendering movement and painting pretty clothes.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Name | Edgar Degas |
| Occupation | Painter, sculptor, printmaker |
| Art Movement | Impressionist |
| Known for | Paintings of dancers, laundresses, milliners, cabaret singers, and prostitutes |
| Style | Superb draftsman, masterly in depicting movement |
| Medium | Oil, pastel, gouache, etching, lithography, monotype, wax modelling, photography |
| Influence | Realism, old masters like Michelangelo, Ingres, Delacroix, Japanese prints, illustrators like Daumier and Gavarni |
| Collection | El Greco, Manet, Cassatt, Pissarro, Cézanne, Gauguin, Van Gogh, Édouard Brandon, Ingres, Delacroix, Daumier |
| Influence on | Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, leading 20th-century figurative artists |
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What You'll Learn
Edgar Degas's laundress paintings
Edgar Degas, a French Impressionist artist, is famous for his pastel drawings and oil paintings. Degas produced bronze sculptures, prints, and drawings as well. He is especially identified with the subject of dance; more than half of his works depict dancers. Degas's laundress paintings are a series of artworks that focus on the working lives of Parisian laundresses. They are revolutionary in their emphasis on women's work and the strenuousness of their labour. Degas created about 30 depictions of laundresses, with the first dating back to the 1850s.
Degas's laundress paintings highlight the repetitive, specialised gestures made by laundresses as they worked. He emphasised the effort of pressing and lifting a heavy iron and the steady motion required to avoid scorching fabric. In his paintings, the laundresses' occupations are revealed not only by their dress and activities but also by their body type—his laundresses are depicted as heavy and solid.
Degas's laundress paintings were featured in his earliest and most significant exhibitions, where they were praised by critics as epitomising modernity. The artworks from this series were revolutionary in their focus on women's work, rather than any presentation of them as flirtatious or sexually available, as was often the case in Paris during the late 1800s.
The exhibition "Degas and the Laundress: Women, Work, and Impressionism" at the Cleveland Museum of Art brings together paintings, prints, and drawings from Degas's laundress series for the first time. The exhibition contextualises these works with artworks by Degas's contemporaries, including Gustave Caillebotte, Berthe Morisot, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. It also includes ephemera, such as posters, photographs, and books, that reveal the widespread interest that Parisians of all social classes had in the topic of laundresses during the late 1800s.
The laundress paintings by Degas offer a unique perspective on the working lives of Parisian women in the 19th century, shedding light on the marginalised labour undertaken by these women and challenging societal perceptions of their roles.
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Degas's interest in the working class
Edgar Degas, born into a wealthy banking family, was a French Impressionist artist famous for his pastel drawings and oil paintings. Degas produced bronze sculptures, prints, and drawings as well. Degas is especially associated with the subject of dance; more than half of his works depict dancers. Although Degas is regarded as one of the founders of Impressionism, he rejected the term, preferring to be called a realist, and did not paint outdoors as many Impressionists did. Degas was a master at capturing movement, as seen in his depictions of dancers and bathing female nudes.
Degas's artworks featuring laundresses were revolutionary in their emphasis on women's work, the strenuousness of such labour, and social class. They were featured in Degas's earliest and most significant exhibitions, where they were praised by critics as epitomizing modernity. Degas's interest in portraiture led him to study how a person's social stature or form of employment may be revealed by their physiognomy, posture, dress, and other attributes. In his paintings of dancers and laundresses, he reveals their occupations not only by their dress and activities but also by their body type: his ballerinas exhibit an athletic physicality, while his laundresses are heavy and solid.
Degas's works also shed light on the marginalised labour carried out by thousands of laundresses in 19th-century Paris. The artworks in the exhibition "Degas and the Laundress" are contextualised by paintings, drawings, and prints of the same subject by Degas's contemporaries, including Honoré Daumier, Pablo Picasso, Gustave Caillebotte, Berthe Morisot, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. These works reflect the widespread interest that Parisians of all social classes had in the topic of laundresses during the late 1800s.
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Degas's depictions of dancers
Edgar Degas, the French Impressionist artist, is famous for his pastel drawings and oil paintings. Degas also produced bronze sculptures, prints, and drawings. Degas is especially identified with the subject of dance; more than half of his works depict dancers. Although Degas is regarded as one of the founders of Impressionism, he rejected the term, preferring to be called a realist, and did not paint outdoors as many Impressionists did.
Degas was a superb draftsman, and particularly masterful in depicting movement, as can be seen in his rendition of dancers and bathing female nudes. In his paintings of dancers, he reveals their occupations not only by their dress and activities but also by their body type: his ballerinas exhibit an athletic physicality. To capture the physicality and discipline of the dancers, Degas demanded that his models pose for hours at a time, enduring excruciating discomfort as they held their contorted positions. He wanted to capture his “little monkey girls,” as he called them, “cracking their joints” at the barre.
Degas's principal subject was the human—especially the female—figure, which he explored in works ranging from the somber portraits of his early years to the studies of laundresses, cabaret singers, milliners, and prostitutes of his Impressionist period. Degas once explained to Parisian art dealer Ambroise Vollard, "People call me the painter of dancing girls. It has never occurred to them that my chief interest in dancers lies in rendering movement and painting pretty clothes." Degas didn’t care tremendously about ballet as an art form, let alone frilly pastel tutus. He endeavored to capture the reality of the ballet that lurked behind the artifice of the cool, carefully constructed choreography. This was in keeping with Degas’ broader interest in the harsh realities of modern life.
Degas's style reflects his deep respect for the old masters (he was an enthusiastic copyist well into middle age) and his great admiration for Ingres and Delacroix. He was also a collector of Japanese prints, whose compositional principles influenced his work, as did the vigorous realism of popular illustrators such as Daumier and Gavarni. Although famous for horses and dancers, Degas began with conventional historical paintings. By the late 1860s, Degas had shifted from his initial forays into history painting to an original observation of contemporary life.
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The reality of 19th-century laundresses
The French Impressionist artist Edgar Degas is known for his paintings of 19th-century laundresses. Degas's laundress series is revolutionary in its focus on the strenuous labour of these working-class women, and the social class of the laundresses. Laundresses were a common presence in 19th-century Paris, washing, ironing, and starching clothes in shops open to the street. It was poorly paid, difficult work, often carried out by women of low social status, including "fallen women" and those who were widowed or without a husband's income. The working conditions were hot and humid, and the work was physically demanding, requiring laundresses to be strong and independent.
Laundresses were often poorly educated and lacked social respectability, and their occupation was considered "unladylike". However, it was one of the few jobs available to married women and widows, allowing them to work from home and keep their children with them. The entire process of soaking, washing, drying, starching, and ironing clothes took several days, and laundresses would often work from early morning to late at night. The work was so arduous that families would save up their laundry to be done all at once, every few weeks.
Laundresses were a popular subject in 19th-century art, especially in France, and their presence in popular culture and art exhibitions invited new ways of considering the depiction of labour and social class. Degas's laundress series, which began in the 1850s, is notable for its emphasis on the women's work rather than their presentation as flirtatious or sexually available, as was common at the time. The series includes about 30 depictions of laundresses, and the artworks were featured in some of Degas's earliest and most significant exhibitions, where they were praised by critics as epitomising modernity.
Degas's interest in the laundresses of 19th-century Paris can be understood in the context of his fascination with the grittier side of modern urban life. He was interested in how a person's social stature and form of employment could be revealed by their physiognomy, posture, dress, and other attributes. In his paintings of laundresses, Degas reveals their occupation through their dress, activities, and body type, depicting them as heavy and solid, in contrast to the athletic physicality of his ballerinas.
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Degas's artistic style and influences
Edgar Degas was a French Impressionist artist, prominent in the Impressionist group, and celebrated for his images of Parisian life. He is especially identified with the subject of dance, with more than half of his works depicting dancers. He is also known for his paintings of horses and racing jockeys, as well as portraits.
Degas' style reflects his deep respect for the old masters, and his great admiration for Ingres, Delacroix, and Daumier. He was also a collector of Japanese prints, whose compositional principles influenced his work, along with the vigorous realism of popular illustrators such as Daumier and Gavarni. Degas' scenes of Parisian life, off-centre compositions, experiments with colour and form, and friendship with several key Impressionist artists—most notably Mary Cassatt and Manet—all relate him intimately to the Impressionist movement.
Degas' work crossed many stylistic boundaries, but he is described more accurately as an Impressionist than as a member of any other movement. He was often anti-Impressionist, however, insisting that his work was the result of reflection and study, rather than inspiration, spontaneity, or temperament. He disliked being associated with the term "Impressionist", and preferred to be called a realist. Degas did not paint outdoors as many Impressionists did, and he did not adhere to their philosophy.
Degas' portraits are notable for their psychological complexity and their portrayal of human isolation. He was interested in how a person's social stature or form of employment may be revealed by their physiognomy, posture, dress, and other attributes. In his paintings of dancers and laundresses, he reveals their occupations through their dress, activities, and body type. His ballerinas exhibit an athletic physicality, while his laundresses are heavy and solid. Degas was fascinated by the labour of Parisian laundresses, and created about 30 depictions of them. His laundress series is interpreted as artistic self-reflection.
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Frequently asked questions
The Impressionist painter who depicted these subjects is Edgar Degas. Degas is best known for his images of entertainment for the upper-middle class in 19th-century Paris, including dancers and horse racing. However, he also painted scenes of Parisian life, including laundresses and other members of lower-class society.
Edgar Degas is said to have created around 1,500 paintings, monotypes, and drawings of ballet dancers.
Degas was interested in capturing the "reality" of ballet and the physicality and discipline of the dancers. He once explained, "It has never occurred to them that my chief interest in dancers lies in rendering movement and painting pretty clothes."
Yes, Degas also painted racehorses and racing jockeys, cabaret singers, milliners, and prostitutes. He also produced bronze sculptures, prints, and drawings.
