Edgar Degas

Introduction
Early life and education
Travel to Italy
Color and line
Realism and Impressionism
- Early ballet paintings
- Travel to New Orleans
- Impressionist exhibitions
A versatile technician
Final years
Legacy

References & Edit History Quick Facts & Related Topics

Images, Videos & Interactives

Painting by Edgar Degas, "The Ballet Class," features ballerinas in rehearsal.

Edgar Degas: A Woman Seated Beside a Vase of Flowers (Madame Paul Valpinçon?)

Edgar Degas: Scene from the Steeplechase: The Fallen Jockey

Oil painting by Edgar Degas showing ballet dancers in white Romantic tutus warming up in a dance studio, with instructors and a chair holding a fan in the foreground.

Painting by Edgar Degas showing a ballet class with young dancers in white tutus practicing in a spacious studio, while an older instructor stands at the center with a cane.

At a Glance

Edgar Degas summary

Quizzes

Color pastels, colored chalk, colorful chalk. Hompepage blog 2009, arts and entertainment, history and society

Ultimate Art Quiz

Close-up of a palette held by a man. Mixing paint, painting, color mixing.

Artists, Painters, & Architects

Tate Modern extension Switch House, London, England. (Tavatnik, museums). Photo dated 2017.

Can You Match These Lesser-Known Paintings to Their Artists?

"The Birth of Venus," tempera on canvas by Sandro Botticelli, c. 1485; in the Uffizi, Florence.

Who Painted the Most Expensive Paintings in the World?

Related Questions

How did Edgar Degas balance line and color in his art?
How did Edgar Degas develop monotype printmaking as an art form?
How did Edgar Degas influence Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse?
How did Edgar Degas portray daily life in Paris?
How did Edgar Degas prepare for paintings such as The Ballet Class?
How did Edgar Degas use charcoal and pastel together in his late artworks?
How did Edgar Degas use pastel in his artwork?
How did Edgar Degas use perspective in The Ballet Class?
How did Edgar Degas use photography in planning his compositions?
How did Edgar Degas’s later paintings of dancers differ from his early ballet scenes?
How did Edgar Degas’s paintings of Parisian entertainment differ from Claude Monet’s landscapes?
How did Eugène Delacroix influence Edgar Degas’s use of color?
How did Japanese prints influence Edgar Degas’s paintings?
How did Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres influence Edgar Degas?
How did the Dreyfus affair affect Edgar Degas’s friendships?
How did the Franco-German War affect Edgar Degas?
How does The Bellelli Family reveal tension within the Bellelli household?
How does The Tub combine classical sculpture with a modern viewpoint?
How has Edgar Degas’s reputation changed since the 20th century?
How many Impressionist exhibitions did Edgar Degas take part in?
What did Edgar Degas study during his three years in Italy?
What does Edgar Degas’s Cotton Office at New Orleans show?
What happened to Edgar Degas’s artworks after his death?
What kinds of paintings did Edgar Degas display at the first Impressionist exhibition in 1874?
When and where was Edgar Degas born?
When did Edgar Degas die?
When was Little Dancer Aged Fourteen first shown to the public?
Where did Edgar Degas receive his early education in Paris?
Which Italian cities did Edgar Degas visit while studying art?
Which Old Masters influenced Edgar Degas?
Which art materials did Edgar Degas use?
Which artists met with Edgar Degas at the Café Guérbois?
Which artists were influenced by Edgar Degas?
Which real materials did Edgar Degas include in Little Dancer Aged Fourteen?
Which subjects did Edgar Degas paint most often?
Who encouraged Edgar Degas to enroll at the École des Beaux-Arts?
Who modeled for Edgar Degas’s painting In a Café?
Who posed as the dancers in Edgar Degas’s The Ballet Class?
Who was Jules Perrot in Edgar Degas’s The Ballet Class?
Who was Louis Lamothe and how did he teach Edgar Degas?
Why did Edgar Degas call the first Impressionist exhibition a salon of Realists?
Why did Edgar Degas create related series of drawings and pastels?
Why did Edgar Degas increasingly use pastels during the 1880s?
Why did Edgar Degas paint so many ballet dancers?
Why did Edgar Degas prefer working in a studio instead of painting outdoors?
Why did Edgar Degas reject the official Salon exhibitions?
Why did Edgar Degas stop working after leaving his studio in 1912?
Why do some Edgar Degas paintings have cropped figures and unusual viewpoints?
Why is Edgar Degas associated with the Impressionist movement?
Why was Little Dancer Aged Fourteen controversial when it was exhibited?
Why were Edgar Degas’s paintings of women bathing controversial?
Why is Edvard Munch so famous?
What was the tragedy of Edvard Munch?
What is Edvard Munch most known for?
What was the impact of Edvard Munch’s work on modern art?
What was one of Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s greatest works?
How was Raphael educated?
Where was Titian born?
Who influenced Peter Paul Rubens?
What did Vincent van Gogh accomplish?
Why did Vincent van Gogh cut off his ear and who did he give it to?

Visual Arts Painting Painters

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External Websites

National Gallery Art - Edgar Degas
ABC listen - Overnights - Degas: His Dancers and Demons
Monash University - ï¿½There must be a salon of realistsï¿½ï¿½: Action and Collaboration in Edgar Degasï¿½ Avant-gardism
Web Gallery of Art - Biography of Edgar Degas
64 Parishes - Edgar Degas
Artnet - Edgar Degas
The Metropolitan Museum of Art - Edgar Degas (1834ï¿½1917): Painting and Drawing
Art in Context - Edgar Degas Â– Exploring the Life and Art of this French Painter
World History Encyclopedia - Edgar Degas
The Art Story - Biography of Edgar Degas
Art UK - Biography of Edgar Degas

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Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students.

Edgar Degas - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)

Edgar Degas

French artist

Also known as: Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas, Hilaire-Germain-Edgar Degas(Show More)

Written by

Richard J. Kendall

Independent scholar and exhibition curator. Author of Degas: Beyond Impressionism; Degas and the Little Dancer and others.

Richard J. Kendall

Fact-checked by

Britannica Editors

Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....

Britannica Editors

Last updated

Sep. 23, 2026 •History

Edgar Degas (born July 19, 1834, Paris, France—died September 27, 1917, Paris) was a French painter, sculptor, and printmaker who was prominent in the Impressionist group and widely celebrated for his images of Parisian life. Degas’s principal subject was the human—especially the female—figure, which he explored in works ranging from the somber portraits of his early years to the studies of laundresses, cabaret singers, milliners, and prostitutes of his Impressionist period. Ballet dancers and women...

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