Читать реферат по английскому: "Degas In New Orleans Essay Research Paper" Страница 1

(Назад) (Cкачать работу)

Degas In New Orleans Essay, Research Paper

Christopher S. Price 10/7/1998 One can t paint Paris and Louisiana indifferently, it would turn into a kind of Monde Illustre. Besides, one must really make a very long stay to get hold of the customs of a race, that is to say of its charm. Instantaneous impressions are merely photographic. -Edgar Hillaire DegasEdgar Germain Hillaire Degas traveled to New Orleans in the fall of 1872 to spend a brief vacation with the Creole American branch of his family. Degas visit, although only four months, resulted in a few important works, but more significantly had a great affect on the style and content of Degas work. Degas was in a period of artistic transition during his four-month New Orleans sojourn and upon his return to Paris he completed what are considered his greatest masterpieces. Degas New Orleans visit marked an essential moment in his artistic career. Distracted and creatively stalled upon his arrival to New Orleans, he left the city with new direction and resolve. The works that Degas undertook in New Orleans both reflected the extraordinary society that Degas family belonged to and foreshadowed the new direction that his painting was headed. His artistic progression did not occur through painting the many exotic images New Orleans had to offer, but rather through capturing a social type through his portraiture. The family portraiture that Degas completed in New Orleans gives a deeper insight into the complex Creole society of New Orleans than the slick surfaces of exoticism would have allowed. The works that are most indicative of Degas New Orleans stay are: Mme. Renee De Gas 1872, Woman with a Vase of Flowers c. 1872, and Woman Seated Near a Balcony c. 1872, A Cotton Office in New Orleans c. 1873, Cotton Merchants in New Orleans c. 1873. When comparing the works Degas completed before his time in New Orleans, such as Mme. Michel Musson and Her Two Daughters c. 1865, to the works created after New Orleans, such as Absinthe c. 1876, one realizes how important his visit to New Orleans was. Degas realist style came to fruition during his sojourn in New Orleans. His realism was based around the desire to record the most characteristic traits of his models, as well as some of the more general ones of his time. Realism meant to him not so much the faithful representation of his model, but the ability to render some of the typical aspects of his time. During his time in New Orleans, he expanded his focus from just capturing his model s appearance, to using everything within the frame of his painting to create an image of a certain social type (Feilchenfeldt pg. 50). It was in New Orleans, where he realized how essential it is for an artist to have a grasp of his subjects customs and charm. It was also in New Orleans where he switched his focus from strict portraiture to paintings with more contemporary themes. These qualities stand out in the very Parisian works Degas painted after his stay in New Orleans. Although Degas found New Orleans extremely visually stimulating, the paramount thing Degas gained from his trip was a new resolve to paint what he knew. No longer would Degas attempt to follow the French master, Jean Dominique Ingres, in the academic tradition of painting historical compositions (Scene of War in the Middle Ages c. 1865) and idealized portraits. Degas slowly detached himself from the influence of Ingres, which very much influenced his early works such as Portrait of Renee De Gas c. 1856 and Portrait of Achille in the Uniform of a Cadet c. 1857, and began to blend the his talents in portraiture with a realistic approach to contemporary life (Mongan pg. 31). Degas separation from the Ingres principles allowed his painting to go beyond the academic tradition of history painting and cultivate a style that would establish his place in the most important artistic movement of his time, Impressionism. Unlike, the other great Impressionists Degas was not a prolific outdoor air painter. Degas never concentrated on this theme thus the effects of light did not factor into his work as much as the other Impressionists. Degas longed to express the characteristic traits of his individual models, and to precisely render them he needed more than just the model s outward appearance. Degas artistic growth and increasing ability to capture the characteristic traits of his models is evident in the portraits he completed while in New Orleans. In his portraits of his American cousins, he goes beyond just capturing the personal traits of cousins and captures the essence of the Creole woman. His ability to capture the characteristic traits of a certain social class would appear again in his later depictions of the Parisian woman. When Degas returned from New Orleans he was resolute on creating a thoroughly contemporary Parisian art, as he created this art his work veered away from the academic tradition. Louisiana must be respected by all her children of which I am almost one. -Edgar Degas The marriage of Miss Marie-Celestine Musson of New Orleans to Auguste de Gas on July 7, 1832 created the link that would forever tie the fortunes of their descendants to New Orleans. Marie-Celestine Musson s family was of the French Creole aristocracy that stood atop New Orleans complex social scene. The Creoles were descendants from the original founders of the city, the French and the Spanish, and considered themselves socially superior to the American arrivistes , who arrived after the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. The Musson family was pleased with their daughter s marriage to Monsieur de Gas, a wealthy French banker from a family with ties to European nobility. The marriage reinforced the Musson s ties to France, their homeland, and was advantageous both socially and professionally. Marie-Celestine and Auguste resided in Paris and started a family. The de Gas had three sons: Jean Baptiste Rene de Gas, Edgar Germaine Hillaire Degas (Edgar preferred the

Похожие работы