Here is a comprehensive overview of the pioneering work of Edgar Degas. Packed with over 200 illustrations, it explores the pictorial world of the man whose formal innovations, commitment to realism and the exploration of both the light and dark sides of contemporary society foreshadowed the art of the 20th century, with Hofmann bringing his own surprising new insights to many of Degas's best-known works. Degas regularly took part in the Impressionists' group exhibitions but followed his own path from the start. In contrast to the sense of harmony pursued by his fellow painters, he produced images of the social world, charged with tension. He depicted the brittle nature of bourgeois life and relationships, and explored the marginal areas of society, where his artistic gaze fell predominantly upon female subjects: washerwomen and seamstresses, dancers and prostitutes. Degas portrayed these women at work and at rest, with others and alone, with a striking focus on the female body in all its forms: decorated, desired, bought and sold, and--only occasionally--liberated. This interest in human isolation and alienation led to formal experiments in which Degas broke with the strict rules of central perspective to create a sense of unbalance and unease. Werner Hofmann's penetrating analysis is interspersed with insights into Degas's bourgeois background, and his artistic trajectory is placed within the context of the major currents of 19th-century art, with David, Ingres, Delacroix, Courbet and the Impressionists among the key points of reference. In this way, we see not only the traditions that influenced him but also his striking individuality and spirit of innovation, which forged a new artistic path into the 20th century.
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