DOI Heft:
No. 302 (May 1918)
DOI Artikel:Mourey, Gabriel: Edgar Degas
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21356#0131
Edgar Degas
Arts, where the conventional, chilling methods to find their equivalents in the technical
of teaching would soon have repeUed him, but sense.
at the Louvre. There he set to work copying And yet nothing could be more modern,
Ghirlandajo, Holbein, even Lawrence ; and not nothing could show more plainly the mark of
until he had lived long in the intimacy of the the nineteenth century, the stamp of that
great painters of the past, those inimitable spirit of analysis and keen-witted criticism, of
Primitives who, while full of exquisite and that very refined and rather cruel faculty of
profound imagination, were at the same time observation, thanks to which certain novelists,
the most faithful, the most veracious inter- such as the Goncourts, have produced effects so
prefers of the life of their period ; not until he startling and so true. Theirs, moreover, is a
had assimilated to his utmost capacity the conception of realism which has nothing what-
metier, so rich in knowledge, in refinement and ever to do with the oppressive, systematic
in expression, of the masters whom right to the methods of a Courbet or a Zola. Writing of
end he worshipped most fervently, did he him- Degas in 1874, the authors of" Man ette Salomon"
self venture to attempt to paint. declared : " So far, he is the man who has best
The pictures painted by Degas at this period succeeded, while copying modern life, in catching
show clearly enough whose influence he was hold of its soul." That is true; so true that
under at the time. He
appeared, indeed, as the
inheritor of the purest and
best traditions bequeathed
by the masters of bygone
days. This as much by his
manner of arranging his sub-
jects and composing them as
in their execution, at once
minute, precise, astonishingly
careful, and yet always on
the look out for the atmo-
sphere and the luminosity
that were already in favour
in the days when they found
realization. The Bureau d'un
Magasin de Coton a laNouvelle-
Orleans, a souvenir of the
voyage he made to America
about the time of the war
between North and South,
some of his early racing
scenes, such as the Voitures
aux Courses, and his first
studies of the ballet, like the
Foyer de la Danse a I'Opera,
will always be regarded in
this respect as documents of
infinite value. How perfect
the execution of these can-
vases ! How far the artist's
love of sound craftmanship,
fine material, live, expressive
drawing has carried him!
One must go back a couple „LES DANSEUSES ROSKS- BY H- G> E> DEGAS
of centuries, if not more, (Pkoto Bulloz, Paris)
125
Arts, where the conventional, chilling methods to find their equivalents in the technical
of teaching would soon have repeUed him, but sense.
at the Louvre. There he set to work copying And yet nothing could be more modern,
Ghirlandajo, Holbein, even Lawrence ; and not nothing could show more plainly the mark of
until he had lived long in the intimacy of the the nineteenth century, the stamp of that
great painters of the past, those inimitable spirit of analysis and keen-witted criticism, of
Primitives who, while full of exquisite and that very refined and rather cruel faculty of
profound imagination, were at the same time observation, thanks to which certain novelists,
the most faithful, the most veracious inter- such as the Goncourts, have produced effects so
prefers of the life of their period ; not until he startling and so true. Theirs, moreover, is a
had assimilated to his utmost capacity the conception of realism which has nothing what-
metier, so rich in knowledge, in refinement and ever to do with the oppressive, systematic
in expression, of the masters whom right to the methods of a Courbet or a Zola. Writing of
end he worshipped most fervently, did he him- Degas in 1874, the authors of" Man ette Salomon"
self venture to attempt to paint. declared : " So far, he is the man who has best
The pictures painted by Degas at this period succeeded, while copying modern life, in catching
show clearly enough whose influence he was hold of its soul." That is true; so true that
under at the time. He
appeared, indeed, as the
inheritor of the purest and
best traditions bequeathed
by the masters of bygone
days. This as much by his
manner of arranging his sub-
jects and composing them as
in their execution, at once
minute, precise, astonishingly
careful, and yet always on
the look out for the atmo-
sphere and the luminosity
that were already in favour
in the days when they found
realization. The Bureau d'un
Magasin de Coton a laNouvelle-
Orleans, a souvenir of the
voyage he made to America
about the time of the war
between North and South,
some of his early racing
scenes, such as the Voitures
aux Courses, and his first
studies of the ballet, like the
Foyer de la Danse a I'Opera,
will always be regarded in
this respect as documents of
infinite value. How perfect
the execution of these can-
vases ! How far the artist's
love of sound craftmanship,
fine material, live, expressive
drawing has carried him!
One must go back a couple „LES DANSEUSES ROSKS- BY H- G> E> DEGAS
of centuries, if not more, (Pkoto Bulloz, Paris)
125