selected works of Degas

A detailed Summary of selected works of Degas

As one of the impressionist greats, Edgar Degas uses pastels to create a landscape with four horses with jockeys in Avant la Course (Race Horses). Like most Degas', instead of using intimate detail, this piece concentrates more on form and composition.

This Pastel uses depth as a quintessential part of its composition by the placement of the figures and the vegetation. Each horse with its rider is put one in front of the other forming a kind of diagonal line starting from the bottom left corner and fading toward the top right corner. Almost reaching the horizon line three-quarters of the way up the piece. Also, the three large trees behind the horses and another tree line much smaller behind them create the feeling of distance. Furthermore, the grass area left empty on the bottom

environment. For example, like the yellow and blue of the jockeys, highlighting

right corner adds to the feeling of space, but more importantly it forces attention to the subjects.

Because the detail in this pastel is limited, it relies more on form and composition. Degas doesn't need to put much detail into the piece though. A master of composition he uses placement and space to create a feeling of real depth and distance in this piece. The colors and high-energy strokes he uses are for two reasons. First, so we can literally feel

the grass is a bright yellow hue, and in some places a green that is almost blue. Another example is, the two horses closest to us have an underlying tone of red, like the jockeys.

Looking at the two horses farthest from us, and the last jockey, it is easy to see Degas l

Some common words found in the essay are:
Horses Degas', Edgar Degas, Course Analysis, , la course, avant la course, avant la, shirt hat, composition placement, bright yellow, horses jockeys, create feeling, form composition, red shirt, detail piece,

Approximate Word count = 551
Approximate Pages = 2 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Arts

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selected works of Degas

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