Hilaire Germain Edgar Degas b. July 19, 1834, d. Paris September 27, 1917

Degas was born into a well-off banking family. He studied at the École des Beaux-Arts under a disciple of the French classicist, Ingres, where he developed the great drawing ability that was to be a hallmark of his art. After 1865, under the influence of the budding impressionist movement, he turned to contemporary themes. Unlike the impressionists, he preferred to work in the studio, not sharing their fascination with the study of natural light. 

Most of his works depict racecourses, theaters, cafés, music halls, or boudoirs. Above all, Degas was a keen observer of women - and in his paintings he caught his subjects in natural - almost photographic - poses. His study of Japanese prints led him to experiment with unusual visual angles and asymmetrical compositions. He made art from things that no painter had fully used before: the way a discarded dress, still warm from the now naked body, keeps some of the wearer's shape; the unconcern of a dancer scratching her back between practice sessions. 

Degas is usually classed with the impressionists, and exhibited with them in seven of the eight impressionist exhibitions. However, his training in classical drafting and his dislike of painting directly from nature was to produce a related alternative to impressionism. based on the fusion and enhancement of existing themes (the classical and romantic) in French art.

In the 1880s, as his eyesight began to fail, Degas began increasingly to work in  sculpture and pastel. In his sculpture, too, he attempted to catch the action of the moment, and his ballet dancers and female nudes are depicted in poses that make no attempt to conceal their physical exertions. His pastels are usually simple, containing only a few figures. He was obliged to depend on vibrant colours and meaningful gestures rather than precise lines and careful detailing, but, in spite of such limitations, these works are eloquent and expressive and have a simple grandeur unsurpassed by any of his other works.

Degas was not well known to the public in his lifetime. Only after his death has his genius been recognised.