Mike degas biography

 

Edgar Germaine-Hilaire De Gas (later contracted to Degas) was born in Paris on July 19, 1834, eldest of five children.

His mother, Marie Célestine Musson, was from a French family in New Orleans and died when he was thirteen. Edgar's father, Auguste De Gas, a banker in Paris, urged his son to enter law school. However Edgar did not stay long and was determined to be an artist.

Mike degas biography wikipedia

He copied the Old Masters
in the Louvre and made regular visits to his grandfather, René-Hilaire Degas, in Naples and his aunt and godmother, Laure Bellelli, in Florence from 1854-59 while studying and copying Renaissance and Ancient Art.

In 1859, Degas had a studio in the Rue Madame, Paris, concentrating on portraiture and historical subjects.

From the classical traditional style of painting Degas became aware of the modern life and wanted a change. Degas met Édouard Manet in 1862 and other artists most closely associated with what became known, after 1874, as Impressionism.