Research: Edgar Degas

Continuing this idea of close ups and cropped out scenes is the work of Edgar Degas.

His paintings such as those depicting ballet performers, all appear in an unusual style that very few other artists. Degas has a very 'capture the moment' quality in his work, almost like his paint brush is taking snapshots of scenes as they unfold. But he doesn't capture the whole scene. Instead he focuses on a particular moment take for instance in Blue Dancers, where the women are removing their costumes and this in its own sense provides a reality to the painting the idea that yes there are other things going on around these women but it shows where Degas' focus is, as if onlookers are  to see the events through his eyes.

Fig. 1 Blue Dancers

The way in which Degas crops and selects his focus leads his paintings open to the interpretation that there is a much larger world surrounding the events within the paintings. In the painting Ballet hall of the opera in Rue Pele, there are half cropped, open doors on either side of the room in the painting that suggests the events are continuing outside the scene but we cannot see them. Again with the dancer on the far right, she appears to be looking at something, possibly out of a window again of which we can't see.

Fig. 2 Ballet hall of the opera in Rue Pele