Edgar Degas, the French artist famous for paintings of Ballet dancers, was born on this date in 1834. 10 facts about him:
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He was born in Paris and was the eldest of five children. His father was a banker and his mother was a dancer and a Creole from New Orleans. His full name was Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas.
His interest in creating art began when he was a child. He and his sister Léonie would copy prints from the Louvre's collection.
His father wanted him to go to law school. Degas enrolled at the Faculty of Law of the University of Paris in 1853 but applied little effort to his studies. He registered as a copyist in The Louvre Museum, which was where his interest really lay.
An early influence on his art was Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, who he met in 1855. He was subsequently admitted to the École des Beaux-Arts to study drawing.
From 1856 he spent some time in Italy, staying with his aunt’s family in Naples. It was here that he made the first studies for his painting The Bellelli Family. He also drew and painted copies of works by Michelangelo, Raphael, Titian, and other Renaissance artists, although rather than straight copies, he’d select a detail from their work to copy.
When his father died in 1874, Degas found out that one of his brothers was in serious debt. To preserve his family's reputation, Degas sold his house and art collection and paid off the debts. He now had to rely on selling his artwork in order to get an income, but the stress must have been beneficial as it’s said much of his best work was produced during this time.
He is often described as an impressionist, but Degas would not have agreed with that assessment. He much preferred to be described as a realist, and while he participated in exhibitions with impressionist artists, he didn’t get on with them all that well. He alienated them by including non-impressionist artists in the exhibitions he organised himself.
He was, by all accounts, a grumpy old git. He had a sharp wit and didn’t hesitate to use it. He was a misogynist who referred to the dancers he painted as "little monkey-girls" and actually enjoyed watching them go through the torture of dance rehearsals until their feet bled. He once said “I have perhaps too often considered woman as an animal.” Needless to say, he never married. He also said “the artist must live alone, and his private life must remain unknown.” Not only that, he was anti-Semitic and dropped all his Jewish friends in the wake of The Dreyfus Affair. Renoir said of him: "What a creature he was, that Degas! All his friends had to leave him; I was one of the last to go, but even I couldn't stay till the end."
He’s known for his paintings, but he was a keen photographer as well and took pictures by lamplight. One of his photos was a lamplit portrait of Renoir and Stephane Mallarme. He took photographs of his models to use as visual references.
He also made a number of sculptures from wax, which were discovered after he died. Many of them were re-cast in bronze. Perhaps the most famous of these was The Little Dancer of Fourteen Years which was of a young ballerina dressed in a real tutu and which also had real hair.
Beta
(Combat Team Series #2)
Steff was abducted by an evil alien race, the Orbs, at fourteen. Used as a weapon for years, he eventually escapes, but his problems are just beginning. How does a man support himself when his only work experience is a paper round and using an Orb bio-integrated gun?
Warlord is an alien soldier who knows little but war. When the centuries-old conflict which ravaged his planet ends, he seeks out another world where his skills are still relevant. There are always wars on Earth, it seems. However, none of Earth's powerful armies want him.
Natalie has always wanted to visit England and sees a chance to do so while using her martial arts skills, but there are sacrifices she must make in order to fulfil her dream.
Maggie resorted to crime to fund her sister's medical care. She uses her genetic variant abilities to gain access to the rooms of wealthy hotel guests. The Ballards look like rich pickings, but they are not what they seem. When Maggie targets them, little does she know that she is walking into a trap.
Hotel owner Hamilton Lonsdale puts together a combat team to pit against those of other multi-millionaires. He recruits Warlord, Natalie, Maggie and Steff along with a trained gorilla, a probability-altering alien, a stockbroker whose work of art proved to be much more than he'd bargained for, a marketing officer who can create psionic forcefields, a teleporting member of the landed gentry, and a socially awkward fixer. This is Combat Team Beta.
Steff never talks about his time with the Orbs, until he finds a woman who lived through it, too. Steff believes he has finally found happiness, but it is destined to be short-lived. He is left with an unusual legacy which he and Team Beta struggle to comprehend; including why something out there seems determined to destroy it.
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