Abstract Lines 1877

Edgar Degas made this drawing using pencil on paper, and titled it Abstract Lines. We're unsure when exactly it was created. Degas was a complicated figure, part of the Impressionist circle, yet also a man of conservative beliefs. There's an undeniable tension in his work, a push and pull between tradition and modernity. His social class afforded him an elevated position, yet he chose to depict the everyday lives of working-class women, especially ballet dancers and laundresses. In this abstraction, we see a stark simplicity, an erasure of narrative and identity. This makes me wonder, what is Degas stripping away? Is he perhaps searching for a universal language, a way to express the essence of form beyond the confines of social context? This drawing, with its bare lines and lack of detail, invites us to consider the power of suggestion and the role of the viewer in constructing meaning. It compels us to confront the contradictions inherent in representation, and the artist’s own complex relationship to the world around him.