Book Description
An intriguing, marvelously illustrated, landmark survey of this popular painter's work.

We tend to think of Degas as an Impressionist who painted lovely ballerinas and lively scenes at the racetrack. As Werner Hofmann so ably demonstrates in his magisterial new study, that viewpoint fails to do justice to the issues that Degas addressed in his art and to how innovative he truly was. Focusing on people in their social environment, on their relationships and their frequent isolation, Degas embraced many kinds of personal alienation in his work.

His early paintings depict members of the bourgeoisie mainly in the role of observers (as in The Bellelli Family of 1859). Degas shows them indulging in leisure pursuits, as art collectors and museum visitors, or as members of the public at the theater and the races, but they are self-involved and shrouded in silence.

This aura of self-possessed calm contrasts with that of the people who inhabit the world of entertainment. Degas depicted all the stages of public performance: behind the scenes, the performances themselves, and the post-performance collapse of illusion. Hofmann investigates this in various contexts: the self-absorbed body (women at their toilette); the trained body (ballet rehearsals and dancers on stage); musicians; and the marketed body (women in brothels). 215 illustrations, 135 color. ... Read more

Book Description
Edgar Degas is famous for his paintings of ballerinas, and that's what first attracts "Kristin" to his artwork. But as she studies him for her report, she discovers that his art ranged far beyond the ballet and she gradually learns exactly what makes Degas' work so unique. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Wonderful introduction to the world of art
As a teacher looking to add to her biography collection, this series is a dream come true. It's written in a style that is attractive and holds a child's attention. There is a mixture of real art pieces and drawings done by the book's illustrator. It's a painless way of learning new information.I highly recommend all books in this series for any 3-5 grade teacher. ... Read more

Book Description
In Odd Man Out, Carol Armstrong offers an important study of Edgar Degas's work and reputation. Armstrong grapples with contradictory portrayals of Degas as "odd man out" within the modernist canon: he was a realist whom realists rejected; a storyteller in pictures who did not satisfy
novelist-critics; a painter of modern life who was not a modernist; a member of the impressionist group who was no impressionist. Armstrong confronts these and other paradoxes by analyzing the critical vocabularies used to describe Degas's work. By reading several groups of the artist's images
through the lens of a sequence of critical texts, Armstrong shows how our critical and popular expectations of Degas are overturned and subverted.
This is a reprint of the book first published by the University of Chicago Press in 1991. ... Read more

Book Description
Presents a biography of Edgar Degas ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

EDGAR DEGAS
I THOUGHT THE ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE BOOK TO BE EXCELLENT. THE COLOR RENDITION ARE OF VERY HIGH LEVEL AND I DID REALLY ENJOY THE BOOK FOR THAT REASON. BUT CONCERNING THE TEXT AND ANALYS OF THE PAINTINGS I FIND THEM VERY CONFUSING. THE MENTION OF THE TITLE OF THE PAINTINGS WERE OFTEN WRONG OR I HAD NO IDEA OF WHICH PAINTING THEY WERE REFERING TO. FOR THIS BOOK TO INDICATE THE PAGES OR THE NUMBER OF THE COLOR PLATES WOULD HAVE BEEN EASIER TO UNDERSTAND THE TEXT ANALYSIS.

the painter of girl dancers
Degas was obsessed with painting girls naked from behind. No, he wasn't interested in obscene poses, but in drawing the backs and buttocks of women as they washed themselves or slept in bed. He also loved watching pretty girls dancing on stage. And he loved to paint them just as much, in rehearsal and in concert. Painting in the daytime, landscapes from nature in the great outdoors--none of that was for him. In fact, he found it impossible to paint anywhere except in his dim and dusty studio. He painted similar scenes as those of Toulouse-Lautrec, but in his own style. The older Degas treated Lautrec as a sort of disciple, with patronizing benevolence. But unlike Lautrec, he led a quiet, chase life and lived to a ripe old age.

David Rehak
author of "Love and Madness"

Degas
This is a great book for any Degas fan, the color plates are absolutely gorgeous!

great artist, less than great book
I love Degas, so don't get me wrong. For a book as big as it is, it's lacking. Way too much text at the expense of Degas wonderful work. It is a big book, why are there so few big reproductions in it. There could be more color images too. This would have been a great book had they made use of the size and done a better layout between text and image, as all books on artist should be. It also seems like they've left out a lot of good stuff the should have had room for. Overall, it just seems like not much thought went into the actual layout of the book.

I don't recommend it as a keeper book on Degas, however if you find a cheap copy, why not, it is Degas afterall and the reproductions do look decent.

The photoplates alone make this book well worth it!
This book is incredible!I stumbled upon it at a [local] book store and it was marked down to an incredible [price] so you can bet I snatched it right up.This book goes from his drafts up through wonderful color photoplates.It has a total history of Degas, his family etc. Wonderful!Buy this book! ... Read more

Amazon.com
When Edgar Degas died in 1917, his heirs found crate aftercrate gathering dust in the rented rooms inhabited by the isolated oldartist. The opened containers revealed one of the greatest personal artcollections of all time: There were paintings, drawings, and prints byEl Greco, Ingres, Delacroix, Daumier, Cassatt, Manet, van Gogh,Cézanne, and Degas himself, including the famous BellelliFamily, a work from his youth that Degas could never bear to partwith. When his heirs auctioned off the collection in 1918, governmentsgranted national museums special funds to make purchases, even thoughit was the height of World War I and money was tight. The museums, itturned out, were also aided by the war--on the day of the sale, cannonfire sent most bidders running for cover. The ones who remained gotbargain prices. This gorgeous book is filled with color plates of manyof the paintings, and its 14 thoughtful essays are invaluable tocomprehending the tastes of a single artist, one with the eye and thewherewithal to put together such an amazing collection. ... Read more

Book Description

Customer Reviews (1)

A must have for Degas fans
This book is worth every penny you pay for it, and then some. It gives you a full page of information on Degas at the beginning of the book. Just 1 page. The next 44 pages are his sketches. You get 47 of these, most of them fill the entire page. Each plate is of the highest quality. It's almost as if you're looking directly into Degas' sketchbook. Alot of them even show where he made changes to what he originally drew. Most of them have his notes. Nearly all of them have his signature. Printed under each plate is it's title, size, and year it was drawn. This is, for the most part, the beginning of his wonderful paintings. The sketches from his studies of the dancers.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who even remotely likes Degas, or anyone who likes good art. The sketches are just beautiful, and there isn't a whole lot of history overshadowing the art. This book is just amazing. A must have! ... Read more

Book Description

Customer Reviews (1)

True Beauty
I absolutely love these cards because the selected artworks are beautiful.These cards are so wonderful, you'll want to keep them all to yourself! If you love ballet or appreciate great art, I would recommend these to you. ... Read more

Book Description
This imaginative board book features beautiful paintings by a renowned artist paired with playful, rhyming text. Children can enter Edgar Degas's magical world of toe shoes, tutus and elegant ballerinas. Dancing with Degas is a fun introduction to art and an imaginative adventure all rolled into one! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

lovely book
Wonderful Degas photos illustrate ballet beautifully, I wanted one of them for myself.

Excellent series
My daughter has enjoyed all of the books in this series since she was about a year old. They were the first baby board books we sought out by author after seeing how much she enjoyed the Matisse one. This one is her favorite lately; she loves to dance around the kitchen when we read it.

Excellent first art book
Fun story about dancing, illustrated by Degas classics. My near 3 yo daughter loves dance related stories and she simply adored this book on the first read, "pretty pictures daddy". A great way to introduce art to your child, I look forward to the other books.

Beautiful art book for kids
I have four of Julie Merberg's books and this one isn't a disappointment.Her books are fabulous introductions to art for little ones.The pictures in this book are beautiful Degas paintings.My daughter loves looking at the dancers and listening to the flowing text that goes with the pictures.All of Merberg's books are worth the price if you want to begin introducing art to your little one.

Great intro to art
Our 7 month old daughter loves the books in this series and gets very excited when we get ready to read them to her. I can only recommend these to anyone that wants to introduce their kids to art in a fun and exciting way. The poems that accompany each picture are fun and relate to each painting, which also helps expand their vocabulary. ... Read more

Book Description
This strikingly beautiful book-the first to focus on Degas` late work-presents a new and definitive view of his last decades. Degas played an integral role in reshaping the visual arts at the turn of the century, says Richard Kendall. The artist`s remarkable drawings, pastels, oil paintings, and sculptures involve startling explorations of color, unexpected combinations of technique and media, and a radical reexamination of the human physique. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Six great articles and many magnificent plates
I was fortunate enough to see this show in London and actually have the article in the Telegraph from Sunday July 26, 1996 that inspired me to see the show.This really beautiful book contains six interesting articles on aspects of the art shown in this event.The first is partly biographical on the last years if the artist's life.I say this because a discussion of the biography must also include some discussion of the art.

The second article discusses Degas' role in the art market in his later years.His current popularity does not give you a proper sense of the complex reactions different portions of the art marketplace and the general population had towards him in his last years.

The third article is a fascinating study of the artist's craft and centers on studies and photographs he used to prepare for his finished and larger works.I remember being very fascinated by the studies while viewing the exhibition.

The fourth article discusses his use of pastels and oils in his later years.Degas was a master colorist and the way he layered his pastels and saturates us with color is still breathtaking.The fifth article discusses his subject matter and how it changed over his last few years.

The sixth article discusses his place in the community of artists and their society in his later years.This is interesting given his reputation as a recluse.

The second half of the book provides full-page plates of the paintings, drawings, sketches, and sculpture in the exhibition.There is also a chronology of his later years, the lenders to the exhibition and a detailed list of items in the exhibition, notes for the articles, and an index.

As fine a book accompanying an exhibition as you will likely find.
... Read more

Book Description

Customer Reviews (1)

What can be said about Degas
This is one of my favorite Dover art books. It conatins a huge amount of drawings done by Degas. Some of which are hard to find in other books because they were taken from a private collection. If you love Degas, then you must purchase this book. It is excellent. ... Read more

Book Description
A great artist offers every young ballerina an invitation to the dance.

The dance paintings of Edgar Degas are beloved around the world. For the first time, here is a book that reveals the intriguing world of ballet dancers behind the scenes-as shown exclusively through the life and work of Degas.

Observing the young students, called petits rats, Degas discovered that ballet training is much like creating art: it takes hard work and practice. As the "little rats" repeated their steps, Degas drew their poses again and again, for like the ballerinas, he was determined to achieve perfection. More than 30 Degas paintings and drawings capture each step of the journey from little girl to prima ballerina in this absorbing picture-book biography. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Much better than Cem Altinel's review suggests
The copy I saw didn't show evidence of poor color separations, nothing that I could detect at any rate...I especially appreciated the degree of attention paid to Degas' drawings...some publishers seem to think that finished paintings are the only things worth reproducing in color. Next paycheck, I'm buying this one! I also thought that the reviewer's crack about a typically rough American approach was uncalled for (and I'm not an American). Ever hear, for example, of Yale University Press?

Dissapointment
This book has neither fulfilled my expectations on Degas nor provided his most distinguished paintings. The dance theme is not properly supported with the paintings. Additionally the quality of colour separations is very poor. I have also found the page designs unsatisfactory. A typical rough American approach to European Art.

A review of the BOOK....
I see the other reviewer has reviewed AMAZON's delivery service and not the actual book... Which is a pity. Because the book is truly gorgeous and an amazing source of knowledge to those who's interested in Degas. It has an incredible amount of picture documentation, as well as tons of interesting written material. It shows in particular how Degas to some extent understood the world of ballet so well he was able to correct the petite ballet rats if they showed an imperfect technique...

It also displays much interesting info about the two old Parisian opera houses Rue Peletier (destroyed in a fire) and Palais Garnier (still existing and in use).

And last, but not least, it shows Degas's various motifs, techiques and ideas. I love this book most of all the arts book I have, and though sligthly expensive I found it to be worth every penny. ... Read more

Product Description
12 x 12 wall calendar ... Read more

Book Description
Edgar Degas traveled from Paris to New Orleans during the fall of 1872 to visit the American branch of his mother's family, the Mussons. This war-torn, diverse, and conflicted city elicited from Degas some of his finest paintings. He arrived at a key moment in the cultural history of this most exotic of American cities, still recovering from the agony of the Civil War. This decisive period of Reconstruction, in which his American relatives were importantly involved, was also the time when the American writers Kate Chopin and George Washington Cable were beginning to mine the resources of New Orleans culture and history. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

Everyone in New Orleans... and Degas shows up for about 15 pages.
This book is quite informative, just not about Edgar Degas. For the first few chapters I had the feeling that all this information about everyone else was setting the stage for Degas to become, as the title would suggest, a focus of this book. I still had that same feeling while reading the final chapter.

The book would have been more aptly titled "New Orleans from 1865 to 1879, with a Brief Visit by Edgar Degas in 1872". If you've been to New Orleans or are interested in its history or never gave it much thought until Hurricane Katrina and are now curious, this book could be good for you. If you really want a book that focuses on Degas the artist, man, etc... this is not your book.

Beyond that, 1 thing that still bothers me is that I've never read anything by Kate Chopin. In fact I'd never heard of her or Cable until I grabbed this book. I was substantially into their portions of the book, so much so that I'd decided to see which (if any) of their books I could find at my library. I was none too pleased when this book suddenly gave away the ending of one of Chopin's books I'd already planned to read. Let that warn you. In those last couple chapters if you're beginning to care about those books being discussed, skip those sections until you've already read the books.

Of the 2 books I've just reviewed, All Poets Welcome: The Lower East Side Poetry Scene in the 1960s, Includes 35-track CD of audio clips of poetry readings was greatly preferred.

Absolutely original
Benfey's study is an elegant, exciting study with many facets. He truly evokes a vanished world. An interdisciplinary study which does not meander or bore. Highly recommended.

Great book!
This is one of the best books I have read.It's so fascinating, easy to read, and just interesting in general.I highly recommend it.

New Orleans Jazz....
Maybe the most important thing for you to know about this book is that it isn't just, or even mostly, about Edgar Degas. If you're in the market solely for an art book about Degas, you may not like this book. What this book is really about is 19th century New Orleans. Degas' 1872-1873 trip is the main theme which the author has used as his framework. Mr. Benfey "improvises" on this theme and goes off in interesting directions. He talks about what made New Orleans unique- theearly Creole settlers vs. the "Americans" that arrived after the Louisiana Purchase; the free black population (pre-Civil War) vs. the slaves who became free because of the war; the rupture caused by the war- as New Orleans was occupied by Federal forces through almost all of the conflict. (Many of the local women proved to be fairly feisty in showing their contempt for the Yankees. One woman in the French Quarter supposedly downloaded the contents of a chamber pot onto Admiral Farragut's head. On another occasion, the soldier in charge of keeping order, General Benjamin "Beast" Butler, was riding by some women and they all turned their backs to him. Butler remarked, "those women evidently know which end of them looks best.") After the Civil War the economy, based almost solely on King Cotton, took a beating in the Depression of the 1870's. Yankee "carpetbaggers" were despised. Liberals who wanted integration of the races did battle, sometimes literally, with reactionary forces who yearned for a return to the days of slavery. Mr. Benfey works in some analysis of the writers Kate Chopin and George Washington Cable, who were interested in some of the above themes. The author does devote a fairly good portion of the book to discussing Degas' "Louisiana Connection," (his mother was born in New Orleans; he had relatives who were involved in the cotton trade; and his younger brother, Rene, left France to try to make his fortune in New Orleans). If you enjoy Degas' art, you will find Mr. Benfey's musings on the portraits and "genre scenes" that Degas did during this period to be interesting and informative. For example, from a purely painterly standpoint, Degas enjoyed the juxtaposition of black and white skin, as well as the white of cotton against the black suits and hats commonly worn by businessmen of the time. Mr. Benfey also, convincingly, shows that Degas' started to use, in these paintings, certain compositional effects- such as slanted floors, the arrangement of figures in interior spaces, and certain hand and head movements- that would shortly reappear in the more famous "ballet paintings." We also see Degas in transition from his early "realistic" phase to a looser, more "Impressionistic" style of painting. I also found it interesting that Degas was fascinated by many things he saw while walking around New Orleans, but he was limited mostly to painting interior scenes because the light of New Orleans was bothering his eyes. (He started to have problems with his vision while serving in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. By the time of his death in 1917 he was nearly blind.) There was enough about Degas and his family and art in this book to satisfy me, plus I enjoyed Mr. Benfey's "improvisations." If, in addition to being a Degas fan, you have any interest in the antebellum and post-Civil War worlds of New Orleans, I think you will get a lot of enjoyment and intellectual stimulation from this book.

New Orleans Jazz....
Maybe the most important thing for you to know about this book is that it isn't just, or even mostly, about Edgar Degas. If you're in the market solely for an art book about Degas, you may not like this book. What this book is really about is 19th century New Orleans. Degas' 1872-1873 trip is the main theme which the author has used as his framework. Mr. Benfey "improvises" on this theme and goes off in interesting directions. He talks about what made New Orleans unique- theearly Creole settlers vs. the "Americans" that arrived after the Louisiana Purchase; the free black population (pre-Civil War) vs. the slaves who became free because of the war; the rupture caused by the war- as New Orleans was occupied by Federal forces through almost all of the conflict. (Many of the local women proved to be fairly feisty in showing their contempt for the Yankees. One woman in the French Quarter supposedly downloaded the contents of a chamber pot onto Admiral Farragut's head. On another occasion, the soldier in charge of keeping order, General Benjamin "Beast" Butler, was riding by some women and they all turned their backs to him. Butler remarked, "those women evidently know which end of them looks best.") After the Civil War the economy, based almost solely on King Cotton, took a beating in the Depression of the 1870's. Yankee "carpetbaggers" were despised. Liberals who wanted integration of the races did battle, sometimes literally, with reactionary forces who yearned for a return to the days of slavery. Mr. Benfey works in some analysis of the writers Kate Chopin and George Washington Cable, who were interested in some of the above themes. The author does devote a fairly good portion of the book to discussing Degas' "Louisiana Connection," (his mother was born in New Orleans; he had relatives who were involved in the cotton trade; and his younger brother, Rene, left France to try to make his fortune in New Orleans). If you enjoy Degas' art, you will find Mr. Benfey's musings on the portraits and "genre scenes" that Degas did during this period to be interesting and informative. For example, from a purely painterly standpoint, Degas enjoyed the juxtaposition of black and white skin, as well as the white of cotton against the black suits and hats commonly worn by businessmen of the time. Mr. Benfey also, convincingly, shows that Degas' started to use, in these paintings, certain compositional effects- such as slanted floors, the arrangement of figures in interior spaces, and certain hand and head movements- that would shortly reappear in the more famous "ballet paintings." We also see Degas in transition from his early "realistic" phase to a looser, more "Impressionistic" style of painting. I also found it interesting that Degas was fascinated by many things he saw while walking around New Orleans, but he was limited mostly to painting interior scenes because the light of New Orleans was bothering his eyes. (He started to have problems with his vision while serving in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. By the time of his death in 1917 he was nearly blind.) There was enough about Degas and his family and art in this book to satisfy me, plus I enjoyed Mr. Benfey's "improvisations." If, in addition to being a Degas fan, you have any interest in the antebellum and post-Civil War worlds of New Orleans, I think you will get a lot of enjoyment and intellectual stimulation from this book. ... Read more

Book Description

Customer Reviews (1)

Great Way to Introduce Degas to students!
I used this book after taking my students to a Degas exhibit.They loved Degas and loved to color the pictures.It allowed for interesting discussions on how he painted.There are some great picture books too. ... Read more