An artwork on Galleree from Cleveland Museum of Art.
About the artwork
Estérel Villagec. 1890
Edgar Degas
Son of a Parisian banker, Edgar Degas enrolled in law school in 1853 following his father's wishes. But he had already shown an interest in art and had also registered to copy at the Louvre. In 1855 he entered the École des Beaux-Arts and became a student of Louis Lamothe (1822-1869), a former pupil of Ingres (q.v.). One year later Degas made the traditional journey to Italy, remaining there for three years. He visited family members in Naples and Florence and attended life classes at the Villa Medici in Rome. A visit to Normandy in 1861 may have introduced him to the racetrack. In Paris he continued to study at the Louvre, where he met Manet (q.v.) in 1862. Apart from his continuous interest in portraiture and history painting, Degas began to pay attention to subjects of modern life. Between 1865 and 1870, he exhibited at the Salon. At the time of the Franco-Prussian War, he enlisted in the artillery, but because of his poor eyesight he served (with Manet) in the infantry. After the war he traveled first to London and, in 1872-73, visited his uncle and brothers who had a cotton business in New Orleans. Degas participated in the first impressionist exhibition of 1874. He continued to exhibit with these artists until 1886 but never completely considered himself a member of the group, preferring to call himself a realist or naturalist. While many of the impressionists painted en plein air, Degas worked with models in his studio and, later in his career, from his imagination. In addition to painting, he experimented often with monotypes, engraving, pastels, sculpture, and photography. He traveled extensively-London, Naples, Spain, Morocco, and Switzerland-but continued to draw his subject matter from modern-day Paris. Other recurring themes would be the female nude and the ballet dancer. After the impressionist exhibition of 1886, Degas no longer participated in group shows. Instead he sold his works to private dealers such as Durand-Ruel and Ambroise Vollard. In the 1890s he began his own art collection, which, besides many works on paper, included paintings by such artists as Ingres, Cézanne (q.v.), Delacroix (q.v.), Gauguin (q.v.), and van Gogh (q.v.). His own art at the time became characterized by broader strokes of paint, charcoal, and pastel and the use of more vibrant colors, partly because of problems with his vision. His failing eyesight and poor health caused him to abandon his pursuit of art during the last years of his life.
This landscape is one of many monotypes that Edgar Degas produced throughout his career. The work belongs to a series Degas made while visiting a friend in the French countryside. Its blurriness resembles the view he saw out the window of trains and carriages during his travels. To translate the effects of weather and the natural terrain, he created layers of color and texture that border on abstraction in the final composition.
Edgar Degas made a total of about 60 similarly abstract landscapes using monotype around the time he made this print.
color monotype
Sheet: 29.9 x 39.9 cm (11 3/4 x 15 11/16 in.); Image: 29.9 x 39.9 cm (11 3/4 x 15 11/16 in.)
Fiftieth anniversary gift of The Print Club of Cleveland
In the serene embrace of the French countryside, a landscape emerges vibrant and alive, much like the rolling hills and whispering trees outside Edgar Degas’s window. This artwork, a singular monotype, is part of a larger journey—a series that unfolds during Degas's visits to a dear friend.
As the soft light of day stretched across the fields, Degas sat quietly, his heart open to inspiration. The world sped by through the dusty glass of train windows and the gentle sway of carriages, blurring momentary glimpses of beauty into soft-edged dreams. Each brushstroke became a dance of colors, harmonizing like a secret song that only nature could hum.
With every layer he applied, Degas not only captured the effects of the weather but also the very essence of the terrain itself. His work teetered on the edge of abstraction, suggesting rather than defining, evoking the fleeting memories of landscapes that felt both real and ethereal. Here, in this art, the viewer finds not just a scene, but a whisper of the tranquil moments that filled Degas's life—a reminder that sometimes, beauty lies in the blur, and that stories, like landscapes, are best felt rather than merely seen.
About the artist
Creating transformative experiences through art “for the benefit of all the people forever.”The Cleveland Museum of Art is renowned for the quality and breadth of its collection, which includes more than 66,500 artworks and spans 6,000 years of achievement in the arts. The artworks shared on this platform are sourced from the museum's Open Access data under the CC0 license. No endorsement is implied.Address: 11150 East Boulevard, Cleveland, OH, USA 44106
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