Edgar Degas: Painting the Darker Side of Life

Edgar Degas: Painting the darker Side of Life

Many stories are told about Degas, his attitudes and his work. This talk seeks to unpick myth from reality, pointing out the strange, even contradictory nature of Degas’ work. We concentrate on portraits and domestic scenes from the 1860s, quite early on in Degas’ career, when he was still in search of an artistic identity. We consider Degas’s tendency to imbue his images with a sense of ambiguity or unease, notably in his group portraits like the Bellelli Family where figures are set in isolation from one another, or in genre scenes where the protagonists appear detached or even hostile in their relationships. Is there a logical explanation for these unsettling compositions, or is Degas engaged in an elaborate game with his viewers? We consider possible answers through an examination of Degas’s work and that of contemporaries including Manet, Renoir and Tissot.