Edgar Degas played a leading role in 19th century art. In addition to paintings, he also contributed prints, pastel drawings, and photographs. Degas produced the greatest number of works of all the Impressionists. The loss of his sight caused him to undergo distinctive style changes and from 1890 onwards his vision was impaired. Between 1870 and 1880, Degas produced works in multiple fields, etching, drypoint, etc. Interestingly, Degas longed to return to conservatism and formalism in painting, however, he ends up with such different art. Degas was always interested in the figure, the reason being that he admired large historical paintings or paintings about the figure. Throughout his life, he made many classical bases and learned to draw from the masters. One of the main themes that Degas has always been interested in is that of the ballerina. He is fascinated by painting, movement and the spontaneity of dance. One of the biggest influences is Eadweard Muybridge. Muybridge could be considered a scientist and was fascinated by the mechanics of photography. He looked at the way the shapes engaged, in terms of low weight and how the muscles of the human body moved in space. There is a direct connection between Muybridge's photography and the pose of the dancers in The Ballet Class. Degas' aim was not to create a narrative of the young dancers, but to capture movement, and movement is an impressionist concern. It's about the fleeting, captured moment. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original EssayWhen we first look at the painting, we notice that the color is rather limited and composed of muted colors. This is due to the lack of lighting and different descriptions of lighting. The dance studios were quite bare, usually the interiors of castles or houses that had become vacant and taken over by the theater and used. When you look at the architecture, you can see that it is quite sumptuous even when all the furnishings have been removed. The dance and poses are the most important, so the color palette should be muted and neutral. The only source of light comes from the large windows in the rooms and Degas needed to use the mirrors and light through the windows to illuminate all the dancers in the room. We are struck by the huge amount of white and cream depicted for the dancers and their clothes. They are impressionistic in that it uses a light palette. In the dancers' shapes, we can see that up close there is a black outline that serves as a contour line. The clear drawn dividing line becomes part of the body, with halftones, highlights and soft blurred (oak colored) shadows on the inside of the arm, thus giving a sense of volume. The articulation of the form is in fact much more refined and there is a greater formal analysis of the gesture. The floor is depicted with thinned paint which contrasts with the densely painted tutu dress. The floor exposes the texture of the linen on the canvas. We can see the layer of white that Degas prepared, then he just dusted the white with paint, giving this incredibly thin layer of paint. Then Degas drew charcoal lines over the paint. The effect of such a thin layer of paint is to create contrast, but it has more to do with the display of light. We can see on the floor, where there are different shades of paint, some are in shadow and some where the light is so bright. This is a mastery of showing the surface as a reflective surface for the complexity of light in the work. It also reinforces the collapse of the space and doesn't distract from the sense of a moment captured with the rest of the dancers. When we look at the walls of thedance studio, we see the scaffolding of coal lines and very little paint. The dark-colored frame of the mirror is a linear anthracite-colored area. The background area is depicted with a light touch of paint and there is almost no trace of paint on the brush. Degas used eau de tupe to dilute the paint and apply it to the canvas. Then, if necessary, spread the paint with a rag, obtaining the sensation of a flat surface. The flat walls, flat floor and subtle linear details have to do with space and form. Degas does not use traditional perspective and we can see that there is a relationship of figures that decrease in size, and there are lines on the floor that bring our gaze back. Degas is alluding to perspective, he depicted the painting at a much more dramatic angle, and this is not mathematical perspective. The flatness of the surfaces and the very flat areas scraped on the floor work spatially to sit behind, to create a layering under the textured paint. Textured, thick paint pushes forward while flat, thin paint pushes back. Degas uses his method of painting (thin layers scraped, rubbed with a rag and very well drawn lines on top) to create a sense of underneath or behind. Degas is building several layers within the painting. The tutu dresses are depicted with short dry enamel brush strokes, with bits of thick paint. For example, in this girl, the bow and edge of the dress are quite thick and textured, and the sleeve is painted very thickly. Some areas Degas painted with very little paint on the brush, such as the girl's skin. Degas blocks the main layer of brown with the thin layer of paint and builds with a scaffold of white. When Degas deals with the costume under the light source in the background, he used small marks with paint then blended and shaded with a darker shade (darker gray or yellow) and it is always a reflective color of the color in the background, which it's an impressionistic look. However, for Degas, the shadows were muddy and dark, in contrast to Impressionist ideas. The Impressionists kept shadows clean, bright, and reflected complementary colors. Throughout the work, the earrings, bows and hair texture are much more textured. The thick, kneaded paint records light. The thicker the paint, the area where it sculpts in the light, where the intensity of the light enters the room through the windows, reflecting off the mirrors and bouncing off particular areas of their shapes. The floor contrasts with the thick touches of buttery paint on the ballet shoes. Degas uses an almost Primal way of working for the ribbons and shoes. This is due to their texture, the hair is shiny, the silk ribbons are shiny, and the Saturn ballet slippers are shiny. Touches of white and pink on the ballet flats to capture the effect of the light on them. We often find areas on the tutu dress where there is thin paint scraped off and areas of thick paint where we can see the texture of the brush marks. If we look at the yellow ribbon here, this is one of the most densely painted areas of the painting. Degas sculpts with paint to capture the brilliance of Saturn's material. Degas always tries to capture movement. You can see that each dancer is like a cameo, they all perform different actions. This is why I think Degas studied them as separate compartments. Every dancer has an impression of what a dance class is, some are tired, others are stretching and even scratching their backs. These are intimate yet everyday representations of the movement of practicing in a dance class at the same time. There is no formality in this class. The scaffolding of signs suggests the factthat we are observing these delicate and silent movements captured while the dance teacher is teaching a lesson. The fresh, rapid and vigorous way of working is to give us a sense of immediate nuances of movement. Degas uses these different ways of smearing and making blurry marks to capture the "vibes" of the movement, so we feel that there is this instant sensation of light and the everyday movements that these dancers are engaged in. An interesting compositional aspect is that Degas left a void in the lower right area of ​​the painting. This reflects the influence of Japanese prints, which create a sense of immediacy. Giving us the feeling of being placed in a dance lesson with the dancers. Degas was always interested in different media such as painting, printmaking and pastel. In Degas's final years, his eyesight weakened, which led to the choice to begin modeling with clay. From the 1870s, Degas began sculpting horses in clay or wax to aid him in his racing works, so the figures for the dancers' works evolved in the same way. Degas worked his way through sculpture and experimented with different media such as hair ribbons and muslin tutu dresses. Sculptures made of mixed materials are common today, but the bronze ballet sculpture shocked the public in a way that his more experimental paintings never had. The little fourteen-year-old ballerina is a sculpture made of wax, and what is notable about this is that Degas had no training with sculpture. Degas used rags and threads under the structure and uses a spatula to "butter" hot beeswax onto the form. Degas also adds varnish to the beeswax which helps the wax set and harden and prevents cracking. This way Degas can go back to work on it the next day. One of the interesting aspects of this work is the surface. When we think of traditional Roman or Greek sculptures (like Paolina Borghese), the surface of the sculptures is well polished and smooth. However, with the Little Dancer, we can clearly see that the surface is very rough. This raises conflict in the audience. Some were fascinated by the sculpture because no one had seen anything like it, they were shocked by the mixed media used in the sculpture. With the real Saturn ribbon, muslin tutu dress and linen top, it gives the new genre of 'Mixed Media Art'. Here we can see that Degas used a heated spatula to smooth out the wax, which leaves these little cuts on the surface. The Little Ballerina's top is made of linen and dipped in wax so that it has a waxy surface. He also chiseled the wax to create a texture on the top worn by the little dancer. Degas forced the muslin tutu under the wax and applied more wax on top, making all the pieces sit together. These dancers were known as "ballet rats". There were so many girls who wanted to join the Paris Theater and it was prestigious to be chosen as a dancer. However, the dancers were usually the chorus, the background dancers. There was the Prima Ballerina but Degas never painted any Prima Ballerina. All his life he made works about these young girls in the background, forming the lines. They were all young girls, in puberty, and very few of them had a developed body, they are all very thin and delicate, and these girls put all their faith in a place in ballet. Many of them were injured and had short lives because they were not treated well, they were considered easily replaceable. The little fourteen-year-old ballerina was modeled to be Degas' favorite ballerina. Degas was intrigued by her resistance, her grace and caught her in a moment where sheshe's waiting and her body is in this incredibly beautiful gesture where she points her toe and holds her hands back in this classic ballet pose. Degas uses materials with different textures as accessories to highlight the contrast of materials, showing his fascination with different surfaces. Degas was interested in showing how light and movement interact with these accessories made from different materials. What shocked the public about this sculpture is the addition of these accessories, it is not sculpturally conventional to put real objects into the sculpture. This artwork also shows modernity and an apocalypse for artists who are trying to expand their repertoire and give us more knowledge about the modern times we live in. In the same way that Manet painted Victorine Meurent for Olympia, a real woman of modern times, just as Degas wanted to show a dancer of the time, with boldness. Degas was not bound by any rules regarding sculpture and was part of the larger idea of ​​experimentation with different materials. Degas knew this would be difficult for the public and deliberately chose to show it in the Impressionist Exhibition to challenge the perception of what working in 3D could mean. At the time, artists were already challenging the way they painted and printed, and Degas chose to challenge the formal rules of what sculpture could be. Sculpture was a genre of art that needed to be mastered and the technical nuances of the workmanship understood (such as the lost wax technique). Degas defies conventional rules by placing oil paints and shadow pigments in the wax to heat and mix it. When he was gluing it and using his burning hot spatula to build the shape, so the wax is colored. Then, when it solidified, Degas drybrushed the top with a darker shade and painted the sculpture giving us the illusion that it is made of polished bronze. This was all an illusion for a sculpture that was not traditionally made and dressed up the sculpture in a playful way. The public has always thought of sculpture as cold and stone-like and think about how the material that expresses the beauty of the form, once the sculpture is dressed, starts to feel like you're creating a bridge to the sculpture that breathes,' alive and realistic. People were horrified that this little ballerina looked real, and audiences are conflicted because of the surface material. Famous critics wrote that the sculpture resembled a "mottled disease", as if bruised or damaged, the skin was not smooth or shiny. We see wax creases on the Little Ballerina's legs, as if she were wearing stockings. Straps on the feet and real satin shoes covered in wax, crusty skin on the knees, creating shades of texture. This not only shows textural effects but also gives a flickering light effect. Each piece of wax causes shadow and we get a greater degree of variation in light attracted to a very rough and uneven surface. The light is dissipated and the edges where the light hits the shape have this jagged edge. The sparse cuts on the legs form their own shadows. So when the sculpture is under the light, the Little Dancer shines with light, and this is the impressionist idea of ​​the sensory quality that light has when it shines on a moving form. Degas decided to make these small wax sculptures with different movements. Degas created these sculptures by looking at his drawings and Muybridge's photographs. There is no sanding, the surface is soft. The sculptures were always in colored wax, however, after Degas' death, the family decided to commission them to be made in bronze. Edgar Degas is known for.