2026-04-02
Edgar Degas began to lose his sight at a relatively young age. The progressive deterioration of his vision accompanied him throughout his life, a fact that is also reflected in his work.
We know him primarily as the creator of oil paintings devoted to a recurring, characteristic theme: ballerinas. The voyeuristic perspective from which Degas observed his models – much like Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec – is as distinctive as the subject matter itself.
He captured the dancers primarily in motion, in a synthetic manner, though this did not mean that details were lost. Over time, however, the artist’s capabilities became increasingly limited. In the 1890s, he therefore turned to the camera.
Degas’s photographs from this period can be seen as the culmination of his artistic explorations to date.
Not only did he photograph dancers repeatedly, but he also experimented with the processing of photographic plates, achieving – perhaps accidentally – effects such as solarisation, which would later interest the Surrealists.
As in his oil paintings, the dancers captured in the photographs appear delicate and elusive. The boundary between their figures and the background blurs in places, becoming ambiguous.
Photography did not, however, replace painting for him, but rather temporarily supported him and inspired him to further experimentation: years later, Degas would use these same photographs as references for his paintings.
