Edgar Degas

Despite being always remembered as an Impressionist artist, Degas never truly accepted the term and all that it stood for. Preferring to be viewed as a Realist artist, or even an “Independent” one, Degas believed that his professional training and subsequent artworks aligned themselves more accurately to the ideas and styles of the Realism art movement.

In the last years of his life Degas grew increasingly isolated, a condition exacerbated by deteriorating eyesight; at the time of his death in 1917, Degas was nearly blind.

Degas’ works can be found in the collections of numerous institutions, including the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; the Musée d’Orsay, Paris; and the Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena, California among many others. According to Sotheby’s Mei Moses, the average compound annual return for Edgar Degas resold at auction between 2003 and 2017 was 4.6% with 83.5% of 170 such works increasing in value.