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Chronology of the Artist's Life
1834 Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas is born on July 19, 1834, at 8 rue
Saint-Georges in Paris. His father, Auguste, a banker, was French, and his
mother, Célestine, an American from New Orleans. The family name "Degas" had
been changed to "De Gas" by some family members in Naples and France in
order to sound more aristocratic; the preposition indicated a name derived
from land holdings. Degas went back to using the original spelling sometime
after 1870, and that is how we spell his name today.
Degas's friends Ludovic Halévy and Paul Valpinçon are both born the same
year.
1853 At age eighteen and a half Degas receives permission to copy at the
Louvre in Paris. In order to develop their own skills, nineteenth-century
artists copied paintings by the old masters, studying their drawing and
painting techniques.
1854 Copies Raphael paintings at the Louvre.
1855 Degas is taken by Édouard Valpinçon, the father of his friend Paul and
an art collector, to visit the painter Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres
(1780-1867). Degas admired Ingres's work and believed, as the great master
did, in the primary importance of drawing in the creation of a work of art.
During the eighteenth century, much was made of the rivalry between Ingres
the draftsman and Eugène Delacroix (1798-1863), who placed greater emphasis
on the role of color in painting. Degas was enamored of both artists and
acquired their works for his own art collection.
Degas is admitted to the École des Beaux-Arts.
1856 Lives and travels in Italy.
1859 Returns to Paris.
1860 Travels to Italy for a brief stay.
1862 Meets Édouard Manet in the Louvre while copying Velázquez's painting
The Infanta Margarita directly onto a copper plate.
1864 Visits Ingres.
1865 Paints A Woman Seated Beside a Vase of Flowers (Madame Paul Valpinçon?).
1865 through 1870
Exhibits at the Salon; these works are not given significant attention by
critics. (The works Degas exhibited are not included in this resource
material.)
1866 Paints The Collector of Prints.
1868 Degas begins getting recognition as an artist. He is a frequent visitor
and prominent member of the group who visit the Café Guerbois located at 11
grande rue des Batignolles (today 9 avenue de Clichy). There he gathers with
other avant-garde artists such as Édouard Manet, Paul Cézanne, Henri
Fantin-Latour, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Claude Monet, Alfred Sisley, Frédéric
Bazille, and Camille Pissarro.
Registers for the last time as a copyist at the Louvre.
1870 Degas writes a letter to the Salon jury that is published in the Paris
Journal on April 12, 1870; the letter offers suggestions on ways to improve
the exhibition of works of art.
July 19 The Franco-Prussian War begins after Napoleon III of France and Otto
von Bismarck of Prussia order their respective troops to arms.
Degas enters the National Guard as a volunteer.
September
The Third Republic is proclaimed.
March 18, 1871
Proclamation of the Commune of Paris, a radical Republican government. Civil
war ensues. The Commune lasts only two months.
1873 The art dealer Durand-Ruel buys Degas's Woman Ironing.
December 27
Degas, Monet, Pissarro, Sisley, Morisot, and Cézanne form the Société
Anonyme Coopérative à Capital Variable des Artistes, Peintres, Sculpteurs,
Graveurs, etc. (the Société Anonyme des Artistes) devoted to free, nonjuried
exhibitions, the sale of works exhibited, and the publication of an art
journal.
April 15, 1874
Opening of the first exhibition of the Société Anonyme des Artistes at 35
boulevard des Capucines, now considered the first Impressionist exhibition.
Degas's works receive mixed reviews. Some critics detest them, while others
write about him favorably and name him the leading figure among the new
group of artists later known as the Impressionists. Degas exhibits The
Dancing Class (1871).
The Société Anonyme des Artistes dissolves due to poor attendance and a
general lack of interest on the part of the public.
March 30, 1876
Opening of the "2me Exposition de Peinture" at Galerie Durand-Ruel, 11 rue
Le Peletier (the second Impressionist exhibition); Degas exhibits twenty-two
works of art, including The Dance Class (1874) and Woman Ironing (1873).
By this time, Degas has befriended Edmond Duranty (1833-1880), the critic
and author of The New Painting: Concerning the Group of Artists Exhibiting
at the Durand-Ruel Galleries. Duranty publishes this text as a
thirty-eight-page pamphlet in which he discusses the problems of academic
painting and the role of avant-garde artists in revitalizing painting.
Duranty does not mention the names of the Impressionists, but his examples
include references to specific subjects painted by Degas. It was clear to
his readers that Duranty considered Degas the most important member of the
group as evident in passages about the importance of the setting or
background of a picture, the significance of using subjects from modern
life, and the need for adopting new artistic practices and stylistic devices
in order to accomplish these goals.
April 4, 1877
Opening of the "3me Exposition de Peinture" (which was actually the first
time the exhibition was considered an exhibition of Impressionist painters),
at 6 rue Le Peletier; Degas exhibits twenty-three paintings and pastels,
including Dancers Practicing at the Bar. He also shows three groups of
monotypes.
April 10, 1879
Opening of the "4me Exposition de Peinture" (the fourth Impressionist
exhibition), at 28 avenue de l'Opéra; Degas shows twenty paintings and
pastels and five fans. Many critics praise his work and single him out from
his contemporaries. Others persist in responding to his work with sarcasm
and derision.
April 1, 1880
Opening of the "5me Exposition de Peinture" (the fifth Impressionist
exhibition), at 10 rue des Pyramides. Degas shows paintings, pastels,
drawings, and prints. Degas receives high praise from the critics.
September
In a letter to his friend Ludovic Halévy Degas laments that he has to paint
ballet scenes over and over because of the demand by the public.
April 2, 1881
Opening of the "6me Exposition de Peinture" (the sixth Impressionist
exhibition), at 35 boulevard des Capucines. Degas exhibits eight works of
art. The Little Fourteen-Year-Old Dancer, which was supposed to be exhibited
in the 1880 show, is finally installed in the exhibition space two weeks
after the show opens. This sculpture of a young ballerina is made with
actual ribbon, tutu, and hair. Reviews range from labeling the sculpture a
"masterpiece" to condemning the artist as "cruel."
Durand-Ruel is Degas's principal art dealer during the 1880s.
March 1, 1882
Opening of the "7me Exposition des artistes indépendantes" (the seventh
Impressionist exhibition), at 251 rue Saint-Honoré. Degas does not
participate in this exhibition because of friction between himself and the
artist Paul Gauguin.
1886 Twenty-three works by Degas are exhibited in New York at the exhibition
"Works in Oil and Pastel by the Impressionists of Paris," shown at the
American Art Galleries and the National Academy of Design.
May 15, 1886
Opening of the "8me Exposition de Peinture" (the last Impressionist
exhibition) at 1 rue Laffitte; Degas exhibits ten works. The nudes depicting
women bathing are the talk of the exhibition. Many critics find the women
ugly and the subject offensive. Some praise the honesty of the depictions
and Degas's use of color.
Gauguin establishes a rapport with Degas.
1892 An exhibition of Degas landscapes is held at Durand-Ruel, the first of
only two solo exhibitions held during the artist's lifetime.
December 22, 1894
Captain Alfred Dreyfus, probationary officer in the General Staff accused of
spying, is convicted of treason and sentenced to loss of military rank and
life imprisonment.
March 1896
New information surfaces proving that all the evidence brought against
Dreyfus is actually the work of another man, Major Esterhazy. Bernard Lazare
publishes a brochure, "A Judicial Error: The Truth on the Dreyfus Affair,"
in Brussels.
November 25, 1897
Zola publishes his first article in Le Figaro supporting Dreyfus. Artists,
writers, and the French people in general were divided on the issue of
Dreyfus's innocence or guilt. As Dreyfus was Jewish, the Dreyfus Affair
fuels the fires of anti-Semitism that had long been present in France.
During this time, Degas parts company with the Halévy family because of his
anti-Semitism, made apparent in his pro-army, anti-Dreyfusard stance. Degas
does not see Ludovic Halévy again.
February 1905
Thirty-five works by Degas are shown at the Grafton Galleries in London,
along with works by Impressionist painters and Cézanne.
July 12, 1906
The united chambers of the Court of Appeal, after a new inquiry, exonerate
Dreyfus. Degas still does not support him.
1908 Ludovic Halévy dies. Degas visits the family.
June 1911
Degas has lunch with members of the Halévy family, except for Elie Halévy,
Daniel's brother, who has still not forgiven Degas for his anti-Dreyfus
stance.
September 27, 1917
Degas dies. |
