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Abby Schwab

Professor Hayden

Philosophy 2205

7-2-2019

When and Where:

Over my summer break from school this year, my mother and I decided to go to

New York for an exciting long weekend trip from June 26th to July 1st. While we were

there we saw great amounts of architecture and were ecstatic to be able to go to the

Metropolitan Museum of Art which is also famously known as the MET. This museum is

located on 1000 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10028 and has close to six million visitors

a year. The museum itself was a piece of art and had enormous amounts of paintings,

sculptures, and drawings from a range of time periods and art eras.

What Artist:

While walking through the MET I was able to see pieces of artwork done by

countless artists. One of the MET’s most well known pieces is titled The Little Fourteen-

Year- Old Dancer. When I saw the girl in a ballerina unitard and stance I was

immediately captured by it’s beauty and simplicity. This piece was made in 1907 and

was constructed by artist Edgar Degas. This very much surprised me because I had

always known Degas as an oil painter and did not know that he was also talented in the

sculpture realm.

Nationality and Ethnicity:

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Edgar Degas is a French artist and did most of his artwork in the late nineteenth

and early twentieth century. Some of his most famous and well known pieces include:

The Dance Class, The Bellini Family, and The Little Fourteen- Year- Old Dancer. Degas

was very interested and connected with the beauty and rhythm of dance. This is seen

as a focal point in a majority of his paintings, sculptures, prints, and drawings.

Degas is known to be a French artist and one of the first founders of

impressionism. He was a white man that focused his paintings and sculptures on the

human body and more specifically the female body structure in ballet. Degas spent

most of his lifetime in France, but was able to travel all around the world which inspired

his artwork to a higher degree. He was able to accomplish the highs and lows of

different lifestyles with his line work and realism to his paintings and sculptures.

Summary of Experience:

When walking around the MET it was astonishing and very difficult to take in all

the beauty and talent that was being shown. When I came across The Little Fourteen-

Year- Old Dancer I was able to not only see the emotion of the piece but I was also able

to feel the energy and story that went along with it. I have always had an appreciation

for art because just a simple medium or object like bronze iron and a few pieces of

fabric are able to convey a story and show emotions without actually being a real

person or object.

Edgar Degas’ portraits are known for their philosophical and psychological

complexity and the images of human isolation. Philosophy in art includes concepts of

interpretation, representation, expression, and it’s form. Degas was able to accomplish

all of these philosophical things in just one simple sculpture of a girl in a ballerina
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unitard. Edgar Degas and other artists are able to form and create their work in their

own interpretation and willfulness that they want to show the viewer. When doing this

the representation and expression is able to be created in order to have the viewer of

the work see and feel what emotion the piece wants to put forth whether it be

happiness, sorrow, or excitement.

Distinctive Features:

In Degas’ life he was highly influenced by dancing due to the way that the

ballerinas and other dancers were able to contort their bodies in a peaceful and

beautiful manner. In French culture dancing ballet was seen as a spectacular talent and

art that only a few could master. When Degas would watch the ballet he loved the

artistry and powerful movement that the dancers were able to convey without saying a

word. He thought this was much like how a painting is unable to actually speak, but

people are able to hear and feel the emotion that it is trying to convey. This was a way

that Degas could show the art of dance also in the art of painting and sculpture. Art is a

philosophical concept that Edgar Degas was able to show in his amounts of

interpretation, representation, expression, and form. He was able to find a balance of

each and had the inspiration to allow him to create beautiful art pieces that had emotion

and simplicity that many people in France and places all over the world were drawn to.