Claude Monet
Claude Monet was a French Impressionist painter known for landscapes and repeated studies of changing light, color, and atmosphere across the seasons.
Painter
Edgar Degas
Edgar Degas was a French artist associated with the Impressionists, known for ballet dancers, horse racing, portraits, and scenes of modern Parisian life.
Edgar Degas quick facts
Degas’s quick facts cover his evolving practice across painting, pastel, sculpture, and printmaking, with documented materials tied to specific works.
| Full name | Hilaire-Germain-Edgar Degas |
|---|---|
| Born | July 19, 1834 · Paris, France |
| Died | September 27, 1917 · Paris, France |
| Nationality | French |
| Movements | Impressionism, although Degas preferred the term realist |
| Paint types | Oil paint · Watercolor · Gouache |
| Other media | Pastel, monotype, drawing, sculpture, printmaking, and photography |
| Other materials | — |
| Painting surfaces | Canvas · Paper · Wood · Cardboard |
| Painting methods | Uses diluted oil for thin passages on canvas or wood; in works on prepared paper, applies gouache over graphite and sometimes adds watercolor |
| Common subjects | Ballet dancers, horse racing, portraits, bathers, cafés, and modern urban life |
| Notable works | The Rehearsal of the Ballet Onstage, Dancer Onstage, and The Races |
Sources: National Gallery of Art, The Met: The Rehearsal of the Ballet Onstage, The Met: Dancer Onstage, The Met: Woman with Field Glasses, and National Gallery of Art: The Races.
Paint types used by Edgar Degas
Degas worked in oil on wood and canvas, and combined watercolor and gouache with drawing materials in studies of dancers, rehearsal rooms, and modern life.
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Oil paint
Degas's The Races (1871–72) is oil on wood, with jockeys and horses arranged across a wide, low landscape. In The Dance Class (1874), oil on canvas, he carefully organized ballet students and their teacher inside a rehearsal room. These painted compositions are distinct from the pastel drawings for which he is also known.
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Watercolor paint
The Met identifies traces of watercolor and pastel alongside oil colors diluted with turpentine in The Rehearsal of the Ballet Onstage (around 1874). Degas painted over a pen-and-ink drawing on paper later mounted on board and canvas. This is a mixed-media work, not a conventional watercolor on its own.
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Gouache paint
In Dancer Onstage (around 1877), Degas applied opaque gouache over a graphite underdrawing on coated yellow paper mounted on board. The water-based paint contributes to a small study of a performer, showing a different working method from his oil canvases.
Sources: National Gallery of Art: The Races, The Met: The Dance Class, The Met: The Rehearsal of the Ballet Onstage, and The Met: Dancer Onstage.
Painting surfaces used by Edgar Degas
Collection records document canvas and paper in Edgar Degas’s practice, and each row links a support to a named object and its recorded materials.
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Canvas
Degas’s paintings include works on canvas, including the National Gallery of Art’s The Dance Class. This textile support carries oil compositions distinct from his extensive works on paper. The collection records document canvas for finished ballet scenes while other supports appear in selected paintings.
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Paper
Degas made pastels, watercolors, and mixed-media works on paper, often with preparatory drawing beneath the color. In The Rehearsal of the Ballet Onstage, the Met records watercolor and pastel alongside oil colors over pen and ink. Paper is the original image-bearing support, later mounted to board and canvas.
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Wood
Degas painted on wood panels in selected works, including the National Gallery of Art’s The Races (1871–72). The rigid support differs from canvas used for his ballet scenes and paper used for pastels. This specific record documents panel painting within an otherwise varied support practice.
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Cardboard
Degas used cardboard in selected paintings and studies, including works on paper-based supports recorded by museum collections. The rigid sheet differs from wood panels and stretched canvas, and appears in smaller works. The sources document cardboard directly for individual objects rather than imply a general format.
Sources: National Gallery of Art, The Met: The Rehearsal of the Ballet Onstage, The Met: Dancer Onstage, The Met: Woman with Field Glasses, National Gallery of Art: The Races.
Painters similar to Edgar Degas
Explore painters similar to Edgar Degas through subjects of modern life, figure painting, unusual viewpoints, mixed media, and French art of his era.
Édouard Vuillard
Édouard Vuillard was a French painter who made intimate decorative compositions from interiors, gardens, patterned surfaces, and oil and distemper.