Oil Paint
Oil paint is a slow-drying paint made with pigment and a drying oil binder. It is widely used for artwork because it blends smoothly and develops rich color.
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
Review key details about Edgar Degas's life, career, French art context, major periods, and the subjects and methods that shaped his painting practice.
| Full name | Hilaire-Germain-Edgar Degas |
|---|---|
| Born | July 19, 1834 · Paris, France |
| Died | September 27, 1917 · Paris, France |
| Nationality | French |
| Associated movement | Impressionism, although Degas preferred the term realist |
| Paint media | Oil paint · Watercolor · Gouache |
| Documented supports | Canvas · Paper · Wood · Cardboard |
| Documented example | Woman with Field Glasses (ca. 1877), oil on cardboard |
| Other media | Pastel, monotype, drawing, sculpture, printmaking, and photography |
| Common subjects | Ballet dancers, horse racing, portraits, bathers, cafés, and modern urban life |
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
See the paint types documented in Degas's work, with links to PaintZeal references explaining each medium's properties, uses, and working characteristics.
Watercolor Paint
Watercolor paint is a water-based art medium made with pigment and a water-soluble binder. It is known for transparent color that settles into absorbent paper.
Gouache Paint
Gouache paint is an opaque, water-based art medium made with pigment and a water-soluble binder. Traditional formulas dry to a matte finish and can be reactivated with water.
Surface types used
See the surface types documented in Degas's work, with links to PaintZeal references explaining how each support behaves and is prepared for painting.
Canvas
Canvas is a woven fabric support used for paintings, banners, bags, décor, and other projects. Artist canvas may be raw, sized, acrylic-primed, oil-primed, or factory-coated, and each condition changes how paint absorbs and bonds.
Paper
Paper is an absorbent sheet material made primarily from cellulose fibers. Its weight, sizing, surface texture, and wet strength determine how much paint it can accept before buckling, pilling, bleeding, or warping.
Wood
Wood is a natural, porous material with grain patterns and absorbency that vary by species and cut. Its surface may also contain knots, resin, or an existing finish.
Cardboard
Cardboard is a paper-based sheet material made from compressed fibers, often with corrugated fluting between liner sheets. It is lightweight and absorbent, so heavy wet coats can soften or warp it.
Painters similar to Edgar Degas
Explore painters similar to Edgar Degas through modern-life subjects, figure painting, unusual viewpoints, mixed media, and late nineteenth-century French art.
Claude Monet
Claude Monet was a French Impressionist painter known for landscapes and repeated studies of changing light, color, and atmosphere.
Édouard Vuillard
Édouard Vuillard was a French painter known for intimate interiors, gardens, patterned surfaces, and decorative compositions in distemper, oil, and other media.