Degas and New Orleans: A French Impressionist in America

by Gail Feigenbaum

Edgar Degas is admired today as the quintessential artist of painter of ballet dancers, bathers, and laundresses, of the racetrack and the theater. Degas and New A French Impressionist in America explores a different Degas in another a sojourner with his family in New Orleans, on the unique occasion when the subtlest and most advanced ideas of French painting alighted on the banks of the Mississippi River. Degas and New Orleans accompanies a major exhibition that reassembles most of the fascinating art that Degas created during his visit and places this work in its remarkable context of family drama and American history.

In addition to the works generally believed to have been executed by Degas in New Orleans, the book includes paintings, pastels, drawings, prints and sculpture done in Europe that reflect Degas's relationship to the city and that are specifically related in theme or style, or are very close in date. Finally, to help clarify its character, the New Orleans work is complemented by a selection of Degas's "typical" subjects, such as dancers and racetracks. Family letters, documents, heirlooms, and vintage photographs from the period help to summon forth the context of the sole visit to America by a French Impressionist.

Genres: Art

301 pages, Paperback

First published August 15, 1993

Reviews

[Jaimesummer Sammons · Rating 4 out of 5]

Degas?Good!New Orleans?Good!You don't often hear enough about the French Impressionist traveling to America,good story.

[Stamen Parushev · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thorough examination of Degas' family, cousans, brothers and relative in New Orleans and less attention to his art in the text