Edgar was counting up money, training to be a banker. He looked up and saw his beautiful mother. He looked at her brown curls and thought that he could paint something that was just as elegant. He looked at her simple smile and said that he was tired of being a big shot banker. Edgar also said that he wanted to do something artistic, and so he did.

           Edgar Degas's family wasn't really all together. In fact when he was 35 years old, Edgar hadn't said a word to his brother in 5 years. Edgar's family lived in Paris. They all expected him to be a banker like his father. 

     As he got older, Edgar became very bitter and literally drove away all his friends, but the good times still remained in his mind. Edgar would sometimes take his friends out to special dinners, but he only had his cruelty, blindness, and paintings to keep him company, whatever company that may be. 

      People thought he should be a lawyer, or a person that was paid a lot of money at least, but Edgar Degas was far more interested in the females beauty, a mans strength, and beautiful colors. He was also influenced by Leonardo da Vinci. He was one of the many very successful artists that made their living off the thousands of dollars they made selling their sculptures and paintings. The streets of Paris seemed interesting to paint. So if he could sell one of those paintings he might become famous and rich. 

      Degas was not very successful in his life. It was more after his death that people started to buy most of his paintings. Some people were offended  by some of his pictures, but some just didn't appreciate his art. When Edgar Degas died though people thought, well the mans dead now he would've liked to sell at least one of his paintings so I can buy one, trash it and nobody will care. The truth is today Degas’ pictures are worth millions. 

Degas was an Impressionist. He despised that word because everyone in Paris was one. So he just called himself an artist. Edgar's style was that he sketched pictures of ballerinas, horses, and nudes. It seemed that in each series of  pictures he had his own special color. Like in his ballet pictures a dull blue was used. I his horse paintings their coats were made of a bright reddish brown, and for his nude paintings a creamy Bausch for their body. In his paintings most of the lines were smooth light and curved.

       In conclusion, Edgar Degas was a very unique artist. You read that he bought his paints with his friendship, but that was all he was about to spend, and that he had his own ways and his own life that nobody could change. This is a great artist and his skills in using a brush and paint is remembered today by putting his pictures up in some of the greatest art museums in the world like the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. 
 

Researched and written by Lily Y.
Mrs. Sunda's 3rd Grade Gifted Class