Where can you see Edgar Degas in Paris?

At the Musée d'Orsay: Little Dancer Aged Fourteen, The Ballet Class, L'Absinthe and The Bellelli Family. Museums move and lend their works, so check before a special journey.

What is Edgar Degas's most famous work in Paris?

Little Dancer Aged Fourteen, of modelled 1878 to 1881, at the Musée d'Orsay. A student of the Opera ballet school, chin up, hands behind her back, in a real gauze skirt and a satin ribbon. The wax original shocked the exhibition of 1881. The bronze was cast after his death.

When and where was Edgar Degas born?

On 19 July 1834, at Paris, France. Edgar Degas died on 27 September 1917, at Paris, France, aged about 83.

What is Edgar Degas known for?

Painted the dancers of the Paris Opera for forty years. The Little Dancer was the only sculpture he ever exhibited. A founder of Impressionism who refused the name. Edgar Degas was a French painter and sculptor, of Impressionism.

Painter and sculptor, 1834 to 1917

Edgar Degas

More than half of everything Degas made is of dancers. He drew them at the Opera for forty years, and the best of it is at the Musée d'Orsay, a mile from where he watched them.

Born: 1834, Paris, France
Died: 1917, Paris, France
Movement: Impressionism
In Paris: 4 works in 1 museum

Where to see Edgar Degas in Paris

Each work with the museum it hangs in. Museums move and lend their works, so check before a special journey.

Musée d'Orsay4 works

Little Dancer Aged Fourteen
modelled 1878 to 1881
A student of the Opera ballet school, chin up, hands behind her back, in a real gauze skirt and a satin ribbon. The wax original shocked the exhibition of 1881. The bronze was cast after his death.
The Ballet Class
1871 to 1874
The end of a lesson: the old ballet master leaning on his stick, the dancers scratching, yawning and adjusting their straps.
L'Absinthe
1875 to 1876
A woman staring at nothing over a glass of absinthe in a café, a man beside her looking the other way. The two were friends of the painter, posing.
The Bellelli Family
1858 to 1867
His aunt, her husband and their two daughters in Florence: a portrait of an unhappy marriage, painted when he was in his twenties.

The life of Edgar Degas

Degas was born in Paris in 1834 into a banking family and trained as a painter of history in the manner of Ingres, whom he revered. He showed in seven of the eight Impressionist exhibitions and disliked the name. He did not paint landscapes out of doors. He painted modern Paris indoors: the ballet, the racecourse, the café, women washing.

He was the finest draughtsman of the group and its sharpest tongue. As his eyesight failed he turned to pastel and to modelling in wax. He died in Paris in 1917.

What to know

Painted the dancers of the Paris Opera for forty years
The Little Dancer was the only sculpture he ever exhibited
A founder of Impressionism who refused the name

Born: 19 July 1834, Paris, France
Died: 27 September 1917, Paris, France

Edgar Degas: common questions

Where can you see Edgar Degas in Paris?: At the Musée d'Orsay: Little Dancer Aged Fourteen, The Ballet Class, L'Absinthe and The Bellelli Family. Museums move and lend their works, so check before a special journey.
What is Edgar Degas's most famous work in Paris?: Little Dancer Aged Fourteen, of modelled 1878 to 1881, at the Musée d'Orsay. A student of the Opera ballet school, chin up, hands behind her back, in a real gauze skirt and a satin ribbon. The wax original shocked the exhibition of 1881. The bronze was cast after his death.
When and where was Edgar Degas born?: On 19 July 1834, at Paris, France. Edgar Degas died on 27 September 1917, at Paris, France, aged about 83.
What is Edgar Degas known for?: Painted the dancers of the Paris Opera for forty years. The Little Dancer was the only sculpture he ever exhibited. A founder of Impressionism who refused the name. Edgar Degas was a French painter and sculptor, of Impressionism.