Review #2 (Negative)

L’Etoile by Edgar Degas is considered to be a classic impressionistic painting. Although Degas never himself claimed to be an impressionist, he is still considered to be one of the artists at the forefront of the impressionist movement. He was born in 1834 in Paris, France and began painting around the age of thirteen. Degas met Edouard Manet in 1864 and was influenced by his artwork for the rest of his artistic career. He was said to be a very argumentative person, with an exceedingly difficult personality. He had very few friends and was known to be constantly devoted to his work, isolating himself from the outside world. Towards the end of his life he was almost completely blind and found it difficult to continue with his artwork. He died in 1917 in Paris.

            Despite his bleak life story, Degas still managed to create many revered pieces of art during his lifetime. “The Star” is one of his more famous works but, much like his life story, the painting has an overall very depressing quality. His use of dark blues, greens, browns and blacks will bring forth exactly the emotions that normally come to mind when thinking of these colors: despair, desperation and sorrow. The focal center of the piece is the female dancer towards the lower right hand corner. Her face displays a deep melancholy, while the dancers (or audience, depending on how you choose to perceive it) behind her look on with unreadable expressions. It brings to mind the “danse macabre”. Is this girl in the innocent white tutu dancing towards her own demise? We can only speculate.