A collection of thoughts and quotes by Edgar Degas on art, artist, painting, colors, ballet, impressionism, Pavlov, dance, writing, creativity and love.
35 Inspiring Quotes By Edgar Degas That Will Paint Your Life With Fresh Colors
The famous Parisian painter Edgar Degas is known for his unconventional ways of portraying human figures especially dancers. He was born in a family of artists which helped him enhance his skills and interest in painting. His skill was acknowledged by some great masters of Louvre and he was allowed to copy paintings of other painters at an early age of 18. He joined a renowned art school but his stay was short-lived due to his distinctive style of his art. He further traveled to various places while improving his techniques by copying legendary artists like ‘Leonardo Da Vinci’. This helped him make portraits but he was not accepted as he did not follow the traditional ways. This compelled him to collaborate with the French Painter ‘Edouard Manet’ to form a group of avant-garde artists called ‘Society of Independent Artists’. This group came up with their first exhibition which helped Edgar to exhibit his paintings to the world. This was followed by various other exhibitions where Edgar’s numerous paintings were appreciated but his most notable works include 'The Bellelli Family' and ‘Frieze of Dancers’. His paintings had a radical approach and always portrayed women like ballet dancers and milliners. We bring to you a compilation of sayings and quotes by the distinguished artist which have been excerpted from his work and life. Go through these famous Edgar Degas’s quotes and thoughts that will give you a glimpse of his maverick mind.
For those who don't know what they are doing, painting is easy.
For those who do know what they are doing, painting is difficult.
Edgar Degas
You must aim high, not in what you are going to do at some future date, but in what you are going to make yourself do to-day. Otherwise, working is just a waste of time.
Hitherto the nude has always been represented in poses which presuppose an audience. But my women are simple, honest creatures who are concerned with nothing beyond their physical occupations... it is as if you were looking through a keyhole.
Everyone has talent at twenty-five. The difficulty is to have it at fifty.
Edgar Degas
It seems to me that today, if the artist wishes to be serious - to cut out a little original niche for himself, or at least preserve his own innocence of personality - he must once more sink himself in solitude. There is too much talk and gossip; pictures are apparently made, like stock-market prices, by competition of people eager for profit; in order to do anything at all we need (so to speak) the wit and ideas of our neighbors as much as the businessmen need the funds of others to win on the market. All this traffic sharpens our intelligence and falsifies our judgment.
It is all very well to copy what one sees, but it is far better to draw what one now only sees in one's memory. That is a transformation in which imagination collaborates with memory.
Edgar Degas
Make a drawing. Start it all over again, trace it. Start it and trace it again.
Edgar Degas
In painting you must give the idea of the true by means of the false.
I felt so insufficiently equipped, so unprepared, so weak, and at the same time it seemed to me that my reflections on art were correct. I quarreled with all the world and with myself.
And even this heart of mine has something artificial. The dancers have sewn it into a bag of pink satin, pink satin slightly faded, like their dancing shoes.
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