Known for depicting the worlds of dance and horse racing, his work betrays the influence of the then-nascent medium of photography, and certainly his canvases captured what would later be called the “decisive moment,” in which an image embodies a frozen instance in time.
Degas surprisingly called himself a realist instead of an Impressionist. Known for depicting the worlds of dance and horse racing, his work betrays the influence of the then-nascent medium of photography, and certainly his canvases captured what would later be called the “decisive moment,” in which an image embodies a frozen instance in time. (As in The Dance Class, 1873–1876, where the action seems to have been called to a abrupt halt by the ballet instructor.) Moreover, Degas abjured painting outdoors like many of his contemporaries. “No art was ever less spontaneous than mine,” he once remarked. He was born in Paris to a Creole mother from New Orleans and a banker father, and like Manet, chose art over a law career. A difficult person, Degas remained a perennial, as well as misanthropic, bachelor who espoused politically reactionary and anti-Semite views. He died in 1917, five years after he stopped working due to failing eyesight.