Edgar Degas Quotes on Art

Edgar Degas was a famous 19th century painter, draftsman and sculptor. He’s considered an Impressionist artist although he never thought of himself as one. Known for his wonderful draftsmanship, capturing movement and for his intimate interiors. He produced paintings, drawings, sculpture and prints. Famous Edgar Degas paintings or pastels include “A Cotton Office in New Orleans”, “The Dance Class (La Classe de Danse)”, “The Absinthe Drinker (L’Absinthe)”, “Woman Seated beside a Vase of Flowers” and “Stage Rehearsal”.

Mini biography: Born Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas on the 19th of July, 1834 in Paris, France. His mother was a Creole from New Orleans, Louisiana, USA called Célestine Musson De Gas and his father was a banker called Augustin De Gas. Edgar Degas died on the 27th of September, 1917 in Paris, France. Degas was 83 years old when he passed away. The artist buried at the Montmartre Cemetery, Paris, France.

Famous Edgar Degas Art Quotes

You know what I think of people who work out in the open. If I were the government I would have a special brigade of gendarmes to keep an eye on artists who paint landscapes from nature. Oh, I don’t mean to kill anyone; just a little dose of bird-shot now and then as a warning. Edgar Degas

A painting requires a little mystery, some vagueness, some fantasy. When you always make your meaning perfectly plain you end up boring people. Edgar Degas

Only when he no longer knows what he is doing does the painter do good things. Edgar Degas

Art is not what you see, but what you make others see. Edgar Degas

It is very good to copy what one sees; it is much better to draw what you can’t see any more but is in your memory. It is a transformation in which imagination and memory work together. You only reproduce what struck you, that is to say the necessary. Edgar Degas

No art is less spontaneous than mine. What I do is the result of reflection and study of the great masters. Edgar Degas

People call me the painter of dancing girls. It has never occurred to them that my chief interest in dancers lies in rendering movement and painting pretty clothes. Edgar Degas

A painting is above all a product of the artist’s imagination, it must never be a copy. If, at a later stage, he wants to add two or three touches from nature, of course it doesn’t spoil anything. Edgar Degas

It requires courage to make a frontal attack on nature through the broad planes and the large lines and it is cowardly to do it by the facets and details. It is a battle. Edgar Degas

Everyone has talent at 25. The difficulty is to have it at 50. Edgar Degas

I, marry? Oh, I could never bring myself to do it. I would have been in mortal misery all my life for fear my wife might say, “That’s a pretty little thing,” after I had finished a picture. Edgar Degas

I’m glad to say I haven’t found my style yet. I’d be bored to death. Edgar Degas

What a pity we allowed ourselves to be called Impressionists. Edgar Degas

You have to have a high conception, not of what you are doing, but of what you may do one day: without that, there’s no point in working. Edgar Degas

Women can never forgive me. They hate me, they can feel that I ‘m disarming them. I show them without their coquetry, in the states of animals cleaning themselves.. I’m sure of it; they see me as the enemy. Fortunately, since if they did like me, that would be the end of me. Edgar Degas

Nothing in art should seem accidental, not even movement. Edgar Degas

Painting is not very difficult when you don’t know how; but when you know, oh! then, it’s another matter. Edgar Degas

Art Quotes About Edgar Degas

I used to go and flatten my nose against the window and absorb all I could of his art. It changed my life. I saw art then as I wanted to see it. Mary Cassatt Quotes

I had already recognized who were my true masters. I admired Manet, Courbet and Degas. I hated conventional art – I began to live. Mary Cassatt Quotes

He (Edgar Degas) showed me a whole series done from the same model and with the same sort of rhythm. He is a draughtsman of the first order; it would be interesting to show all these preparatory studies for a painting to the public, which generally imagines that the impressionists work in a very casual way. I do not think it possible to go further in the rendering of form. Berthe Morisot Quotes

Edgar Degas Self-Portrait Pastel

More on French Artist Edgar Degas Quotations

How has Edgar Degas influenced your art making? Are his bath scenes some of the most beautiful? What about his dancers?. Let us know what you think about Degas in the comments below.

For more on the famous French artist here’s three excellent Edgar Degas books: “Degas: A Passion for Perfection“, “Degas and the Nude“, and “The Lost Sketchbook of Edgar Degas“

Related or similar popular artists include: Claude Monet, Pierre Auguste Renoir, Paul Cezanne, Edouard Manet, and other Famous French Artists.