Common Core State Standard: CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.3.1, 4.1, 5.1, 6.1, 7.1, 8.1; CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RF.3.3a-c, 3.

4a-c,
4.3, 4.4, 5.3, 5.4; CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RST.6-8.9

Article written by the staff at Lyman Allyan Art

Meet the Artist: • Degas was born on July 19, 1834 in Paris, France; he died in 1917
• He lived and worked in France
Edgar Degas • Style: Impressionism

After studying art at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, Degas

experimented with painting, sculpting, printing and drawing. Unlike many
of the Impressionist artists of his time, Degas always painted indoors
in his studio and worked from memory, photos or live models. While
he made portraits and history paintings, Degas was most interested in
painting scenes of everyday life, especially horse racing and the ballet.
He made detailed sketches of both horses and jockeys at the race course,
and at the ballet, he recorded every detail of the dancers’ costumes and
movements. Back in the studio, he transformed his observations and
sketches into paintings or pastel drawings. While Degas is considered an
Impressionist artist today, he actually liked to call himself a realist painter
because he was depicting scenes of everyday life in Paris with great detail.

Le Champ de Courses.

ART BREAK!
Supplies needed: paper and pastels
Degas liked to sketch people taking part in leisure activities.

Try your hand at sketching someone playing sports, walking

their dog or reading.