Edgar Degas' Biography Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Edgar Degas' Biography - Essay Example According to the research "Edgar Degas' Biography" findings at the young age of twenty, he decided that art was the field for him and urged his father to let him try. Before entering the famous Ecole des Beaux-Arts, he took lessons from an unknown artist of his time Louis Lamothe, who himself had learned from Ingres. This association was more than enough for Degas who had nourished a lifelong fascination with Ingres’ work and admired the artist immensely. Luckily for him, he also managed to meet Ingres himself whom he considered a master in Arts. Ingres gave him a good piece of advice that Degas fondly recalled many years later. He told him to: "Draw lines, young man, and still more lines, both from the life and from memory." Degas never forgot this advice and kept it close to his hear throughout his career. In 1856 Degas went to Italy to reconnect with his Italian relatives and stayed for extended the time in both Rome and Florence. At that time, it was considered important for every serious student of art to visit Italy at least once. For Degas, there was more than one reason to see Italy since it is where his relatives lived and this is where art is present in all its historical glory. Once he returned to Paris, he made Paris his home for the rest of his life with an occasional trip here and there. Upon Degas’ return to Paris in 1960, the artist was still very young and had been deeply under the influence of the Old Masters. This classical training was the norm in his time and he drew many copies of the paintings by the Masters.