Portrait of a Man 1866

Edgar Degas made this oil-on-canvas portrait with brushes and paint, the fairly conventional tools of his time. But the real story lies in how Degas used those materials. Notice the loose brushwork, the way the paint seems to have been scrubbed onto the canvas in places, especially around the edges of the figure. It's as if he was more interested in capturing a fleeting impression than creating a polished likeness. Think about the labor involved. This isn't the meticulous, highly finished style of academic painting, which required hours of careful blending and glazing. Degas's approach is faster, more spontaneous, more modern. It reflects the changing pace of life in 19th-century Paris, a society increasingly focused on industry, and movement, and speed. Degas was challenging traditional art. The raw, unfinished quality of the work speaks to a new kind of artistic vision.