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Painter and sculptor, 1834 to 1917

Edgar Degas

Degas owes his place in New York to one friend. The American painter Mary Cassatt told her friend Louisine Havemeyer to buy him, and the Havemeyers' collection went to the Metropolitan Museum.

Born
1834, Paris, France
Died
1917, Paris, France
Movement
Impressionism
In New York
4 works in 2 museums

Where to see Edgar Degas in New York

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

The Metropolitan Museum of Art3 works

  1. The Dance Class, by Degas: dancers in white wait round a rehearsal room while one is examined by the ballet master, who leans on a stick.

    The Dance Class

    1874

    Two dozen dancers and their mothers wait in a rehearsal room of the old Paris Opera while one girl is examined by the ballet master, leaning on his stick.

  2. The Little Fourteen-Year-Old Dancer, by Degas: a bronze figure of a young dancer with her chin raised, in a cloth skirt and a satin hair ribbon.

    The Little Fourteen-Year-Old Dancer

    modelled 1878 to 1881, cast in 1922

    A student of the Opera ballet, chin up and hands behind her back, in a bodice and a skirt of real cloth. The wax original shocked Paris in 1881. The bronzes were cast after his death.

  3. A Woman Seated beside a Vase of Flowers, by Degas: a large bunch of late summer flowers fills the canvas, with a woman at its edge looking away.

    A Woman Seated beside a Vase of Flowers

    1865

    A great bunch of late-summer flowers fills the canvas, and the woman is pushed to its edge, looking away. Nobody had composed a portrait like this before.

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum1 work

  1. Dancers in Green and Yellow

    about 1903

    A late pastel of four dancers waiting in the wings, in the Thannhauser Collection.

The life of Edgar Degas

Edgar Degas was born in Paris in 1834 into a banking family and trained in the tradition of Ingres. He showed with the Impressionists but disliked the name and never painted out of doors. His subjects were the ballet, the racecourse, the café and women washing, seen from odd angles as if by someone passing.

Louisine Havemeyer bought her first Degas, a pastel of a ballet rehearsal, in 1877, when she was twenty-two, on Mary Cassatt's advice. It was among the first works by an Impressionist to enter an American collection. She went on buying for forty years, and left the best of it to the Met in 1929.

What to know

  • The Met has a cast of every one of his surviving sculptures
  • The Havemeyer bequest of 1929 brought the museum most of its Degas
  • The Little Dancer wears a real skirt and a ribbon in her hair
Born
19 July 1834, Paris, France
Died
27 September 1917, Paris, France

Edgar Degas: common questions

Where can you see Edgar Degas in New York?
At the Metropolitan Museum of Art: The Dance Class, The Little Fourteen-Year-Old Dancer and A Woman Seated beside a Vase of Flowers. At the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum: Dancers in Green and Yellow. Museums move and lend their works, so check before a special journey.
What is Edgar Degas's most famous work in New York?
The Dance Class, of 1874, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Two dozen dancers and their mothers wait in a rehearsal room of the old Paris Opera while one girl is examined by the ballet master, leaning on his stick.
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?
The Met has a cast of every one of his surviving sculptures. The Havemeyer bequest of 1929 brought the museum most of its Degas. The Little Dancer wears a real skirt and a ribbon in her hair. Edgar Degas was a French painter and sculptor, of Impressionism.

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