Impressionist

Edgar Degas helped to found and develop the Impressionist group of artist and their exhibitions. Though he helped to develop the group of Impressionist, he did not consider himself one; he referred to himself as a Realist or an independent artist. Degas preferred to paint scenes that were indoors and lit by artificial light rather than outdoor naturally light scenes. He used many different medium when making his art such as oil paints, bronze sculptures, engravings, photos, and sketches with pencil and pastels.

Degas began his study of art by copying Italian Renaissance paintings that he saw in the Louvre. In 1850s, a tip that he took to Italy influenced him where he was many paintings and frescos that he did many sketches of. Degas early works were strongly influenced by his early academic training with Louis Lamothe; after he had a piece that was accepted into the salon he decided that he no longer wanted to paint academic subject matter anymore. Once the borders of Japan were opened and trade began to increases many artist including Degas were influenced by the Japanese prints that many of the imported items were wrapped in. Degas began to use the subject matter form the Japanese prints in his own paintings like images of woman washing clothes (1). Not only did he use the subject matter but he also would talk poses from the prints and reinterpret those using different subjects (2). Degas was also very interested in movement so he often times would use dancers as subject matter.

Henri de Toulouse–Lautrec is a Post-Impressionist artist that used oil paints and lithographs as his main mediums. As a child, he would draw when he was bedridden due to health problems. When he was older, he moved to Paris to study with Léon Bonnat...

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...s. He would also use framing techniques in his prints that that were from the ukiyo-e prints. Toulouse–Lautrec would alter his color palette to create different lights that he observed in cabarets. Most of his faces were made up of very few lines and a slight bit of color; this is an influence of other Impressionist artist including Degas.

Many of Degas and Toulouse–Lautrec’s influences are similar but they use these influences in different ways. Their use of lines and color are very different and this has a great impact on the style that they use. There are reasons for their styles to be so different one of the main reasons is the purpose of their work. Degas was creating art for art sake where as many of Toulouse–Lautrec were made for advertising. There are many more differences between the Impressionist and the Post-Impressionist than appears are first glance.