Fine art from artists across the globe!
Your cart is currently empty
Edgar Degas (19 July 1834 – 27 September 1917), born Hilaire-Germain-Edgar Degas (pronounced [ilɛʀ ʒɛʁmɛ̃ ɛdɡɑʀ dœˈɡɑ]), was a French artist famous for his work in painting, sculpture, printmaking and drawing. He is regarded as one of the founders of Impressionism although he rejected the term, and preferred to be called a realist. A superb draughtsman, he is especially identified with the subject of the dance, and over half his works depict dancers. These display his mastery in the depiction of movement, as do his racecourse subjects and female nudes. His portraits are considered to be among the finest in the history of art.
Early in his career, his ambition was to be a history painter, a calling for which he was well prepared by his rigorous academic training and close study of classic art. In his early thirties he changed course, and by bringing the traditional methods of a history painter to bear on contemporary subject matter, he became a classical painter of modern life.
_________________________________
A student of the French landscape painter Eugène Cicéri and Edmond Yon, Thornley became a successful artist remembered for his seascapes from Normandy and his landscapes from the French and Italian Rivieras. He was the son of a Welsh immigrant Morgan Thornley.
He also was a talented watercolorist, engraver, and lithographer. His lithographs after the works of Corot, Pissarro, Degas and Puvis de Chavannes were acclaimed by his peers and awarded at the Salon de Paris.
His paintings were exhibited beginning in 1878. He won the Mention of Honor in 1881 and a Third Class medal in 1888. Thornley embraced the Impressionist movement early in his career, which brought him much success.
His style characteristically has bold brushwork and thick "impasto." It recreates the "impression of a panorama", capturing the fleeting moment in its inner light and color. This open landscape is an example of what the artist excelled at: successful color effects which are highly decorative but stay true to nature.
