Degas, (Hilaire Germain) Edgar

French painter and sculptor. Known for his ability to capture movement, he devoted himself to lively, informal studies (often using pastels) of ballet, horse racing, and young women working. From the 1890s he turned increasingly to sculpture, modelling figures in wax in a fluent, naturalistic style. Although he had links with Impressionism, his work was in many ways quite distinct from the movement, favouring carefully draughted compositions executed in a studio environment.

Degas studied under a pupil of Ingres and worked in Italy in the 1850s, painting classical themes. In 1861 he met Manet, and exhibited regularly with the Impressionists 1874–86. His characteristic style soon emerged, showing the influence of Japanese prints and photography in inventive compositions and unusual viewpoints, as in Woman with Chrysanthemums (1865; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York). He was the first major sculptor to view his subjects (mainly female dancers) through an objective dispassionate eye, focusing on movement and light, and capturing momentary poses in a way that anticipated action photography, as in The Little Dancer (1881; Tate Gallery, London).