Edgar Degas
Category: Books,Arts & Photography,History & Criticism
Edgar Degas Details
Whether madonna, muse or temptress, women have been a source of artistic inspiration throughout history. In the Reveries series, Parkstone pays tribute to the important contribution women have made to artists by uplifting their spirits and giving free reign to their fantasies. We invite you to share the erotic world of well-known painters such as Degas and Schiele.This new genre of art book offers a glimpse into the private lives of some of the most influential artists of modern times. The most striking features of the Reveries series are their brief texts, sophisticated layouts, and high-quality reproductions. Each title pays homage to the artists oeuvre and the elegant layouts include some rarely-seen images.Every page benefits from a unique design and offers a unique setting for some of the most sensual works of Degas, Schiele. Modigliani and Toulouse-Lautrec. These publications should be considered as works of art themselves, a delight for the enthusiast; instructive for the novice; a welcome and valuable addition to any library.
Reviews
So you think you know your Degas? Most of us definitely don't. The women in Degas' paintings, including the dainty ballet dancers and the girls milling around backstage cannot be easily separated from the ethos of commercial availabilty of females in the Paris of the 1870s. As the text points out, if a woman was out on her own and self-supporting, it was reasonable to assume she was available from horizontal sporting for a fee. This included shopgirls, laundresses, owners of small shops designing hats and even ballet dancers. "In the last thirty years of the 19th century when Degas painted and drew his images of dancers, ballet was going through an artistic trough and was far from the respected and elevated art form it has been ever since Diaghilev." And we are given the name of a ballerina who grew tired of kicking up her legs for the paltry sums inherent in her calling. These are but details in Degas lifelong obsession with prostitutes, steeping himself in seeing brothels from the inside and being deeply attracted to intimate female ablutions and bathing. This book shows us Degas sketches we've never seen or imagined (though none are pornographic). Overall, the intimate and ascerbic sketches recast our perceptions of all of Degas paintings of women. All of them are colored by the atmosphere of widespread, matter-of-fact prostitution of the era. As Degas commented, "I have perhaps been too given over to viewing women as animals."The text carries us far beyond any guide book to Paris brothels in the 1870s. It conveys to us how women were viewed by Degas when he painted them, immersed as he was in the frenzies of his era. After savoring the text and seeing the hidden away sketches, we'll never view these paintings in the same old way.