French1834–1917
Edgar Degas
A founder of the Impressionist exhibitions who preferred to call himself a Realist. He painted modern Paris, its performers, workers and people at leisure, often cut off at odd angles as if seen in passing.
A life in paintings
- 1834Born
- 1841Paint in tubes
The collapsible metal paint tube is patented, making it practical to paint outdoors.
- 1854Japan opens its ports
A treaty with the United States ends more than two centuries of Japanese seclusion. Within a few years Japanese prints are reaching the West, where their flat colour and bold cropping change how painters compose.
- 1865
- 1870Franco-Prussian War
War breaks out. Degas joins the National Guard to defend Paris.
- 1874The first Impressionist exhibition
A group of painters show their work independently of the Salon. A critic mocks them as ‘Impressionists’ and the name sticks.
- 1877Worked with Mary CassattParis
Degas invited Cassatt to exhibit with the Impressionists. Their studios were a five-minute walk apart, he often looked in to give her advice, and she frequently posed for him.
Source: Wikipedia - 1882
- 1886The last Impressionist exhibition
Seurat shows a huge picture made of dots, and the group splits over it.
- 1917Died
Circles
Exhibition · Paris · 1874
Impressionist exhibitions
The eight independent group shows, 1874-1886. Pissarro alone showed at all eight; Cassatt at four; Renoir 1874, 1876, 1877, 1882; Seurat and Signac only at the 8th (1886). Manet never exhibited with them.
- Alfred Sisley
- Camille Pissarro
- Claude Monet
- Georges Seurat
- Gustave Caillebotte
- Mary Cassatt
- Paul Cézanne
- Paul Signac
- Pierre-Auguste Renoir