Edgar Degas Ballet Dancer With Arms Crossed example essay topic

It is in his concepts of man versus himself, his studying of light, capturing a moment and use of large shapes to flatten space that makes Edgar Degas an impressionist. In comparison to his peers, Degas has a tight style of painting and defined, characterized, figures; yet, it is not style that defines impressionism:" Unlike realism, impressionism rarely responded to politics... impressionist painters preferred genre subjects, especially scenes of leisure activities, entertainment and landscape, and impressionism was more influenced by Japanese prints and new developments in photograph... ". (Adams, 805) Laurie Schneider Adams defines the impressionist movement, being careful not to describe the use of paint and its thick application.

She does this to clarify that impressionism is a concept not a style. While most impressionist do coat their canvas, style is second to the idea that the observed properties of light and color. It is in this understanding that Edgar Degas' Ballet Dancer with Arms Crossed is an impressionistic painting. With an asymmetrical composition, Edgar Degas' 1872 painting, Ballet Dancer with Arms Crossed is 24 1/8 x 19 7/8 inches large. Large graphic shapes, mostly red or yellow in tone, form a brooding dancer. A sensation of three dimensionality is achieved with two light sources, one bring and the other dim.

The front of her body is dimly lit, allowing soft light to give great detail to the collarbone and face. Although never confirmed, this painting is most likely one of Degas numerous sketches. A notorious perfectionist, Degas would often bring his original charcoal drawings to finish in order to prepare for a future piece. Before impressionism, during the realist movement, there was an underlining message of man versus nature. With the industrial revolution, a new message arrived: man versus himself. This message was most evident in Degas' many equestrian paintings; Laurie Schneider Adams states, "In At the Races, Degas' figures are in a state of restlessness...

At the left, a single horse gallops into the picture plane as his jockey reins him. The arrested movement of the galloping horse draws attention to the distant train that continues on... Degas refers to the contrast between mechanized and natural movement and to the changing modes of transportation created by the industrial revolution". (Adams, 821) The industrial Revolution continued mans affair with himself: the ambition to always perfect, refine, and move forward.

Degas often composes natural and unnatural forms juxtapose, in Ballet Dancer with Arms Crossed the comparison is in light. The natural light over powers the artificial light. The artificial seems impotent, when compared to the natural. However, Degas does not give a solid outcome to the question, "What is better, natural or artificial light?" Like other impressionists, he breaks away from the importance of the individual, concentrating on the world around him. While his peers flood outside, to capture nature, Degas remains indoors. Capturing how artificial light shifts over plans of the face and body with such an intensity, it questions Degas position as an impressionist, "Degas interest in painting the ballet was stimulated by his early delight in portraiture...

". (Sutton, 164) But it is neither the individual characteristics nor the personality that Degas strives for. His love of portraiture is in noticing the graphic shapes created by color and light. Degas frames the dancer in wild red gestures to capture her emotions and reactions. The red also serves to cut the pictured space dramatically. By washing out the dancers surroundings, with graphic shapes, the space is kept upfront.

This creates a graphic image rather than a "window to another world". One of the main influences of the impressionist movement was Japanese woodblock prints.

Bibliography

Petit, Georges. mfa Collection Database. MFA. 30 Oct. 2004 The Impressionist The Other French Revolution.
Dir. Bruce Alfred. A&E Television Networks, 2001.
Carandente, Giovanni. Degas. New York: Avenel Books, 1995.
Sutton, Denys. Edgar Degas: Life and Work. New York: Rizzoli, 1986 Haley, Daniel.
My friend Degas. NC: Wesleyan UP, 1973.
Adams, Laurie Schneider. Art Across Time. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2002.