Degas and more of his works

Although Degas was interested with Japonisme, he did not capture Japanese people dressing in kimonos as his subject matter. Instead, like what I have already discuss in the previous blog, Japonisme appearing in Degas’ works, Degas mostly absorbed Japanese’s uses of aerial perspective, bold colors, asymmetrical compositions, and empty spaces filled with abstract elements of line and color.

“Ballet Rehearsal” by Edgar Degas

In “Ballet Rehearsal” (1876), Degas used the element of Japanese arts, such as “cutting off figures with the picture frame” (Lambourne, 39). For instance, the man in the black suit who is sitting in a chair and is playing violin is presented by being in the corner and a part of his body appears cropped. A type of paintings like “Ballet Rehearsal” was believed to be inspired by either the double-page spread of Dance of the Servant in volume III of the Manga or Hokusai’s “Odori Hitori Geiko” (Self-taught Dancing Apprenticeship).

“A Woman Seated beside a Vase of Flowers” by Edgar Degas

“A Woman Seated beside a Vase of Flowers” (1865) also demonstrates the figures cropped at the edges. The woman is cut off at the right corner of the picture while a large bouquet of flowers is placed in the center of the picture. Moreover, her left hand is almost invisible at the lower right corner.

These kinds of unusual cropping and asymmetrical framing are often found in Degas’ works of art; however, instead of copying Japanese arts completely, Degas “seized on the Japanese artists' economy of line, their use of evocative neutral colors, the flatness of their spaces, and their asymmetrical compositions” (Einspruch, 6) and made paintings in his own style.