The Boredom of Nature: Degas’s Italian Revelation
- Art d'Histoire
- May 29
- 3 min read
On November 11, 1858, a crate arrived at the Parisian home of Auguste de Gas, a wealthy banker and art lover. Inside were the latest works sent by his son, Edgar, from Italy. The father’s verdict was immediate and enthusiastic. In a letter, he celebrated that Edgar had finally rid himself of the "flabby, trivial Flandrinian Lamothian drawing" and the "dull grey colour" taught by his uninspired masters at the École des Beaux-Arts. Auguste predicted that his son would achieve "great things," assuring him that he was finally "on the right track."
A Privileged Rebellion
Edgar Degas did not need to win the prestigious Prix de Rome to study the masters; his father’s fortune provided an equivalent opportunity. While he had placed 33rd in the entrance exam for the École des Beaux-Arts in 1855, Edgar proved to be an undiligent student, preferring to copy originals in the Louvre rather than follow the curriculum.
Thanks to his family's financial support, he embarked on a three-year artistic training and trip to Italy. This journey was also a return to his roots: his grandfather, René Hilaire de Gas, had fled the French Revolution to Naples, where he established a banking dynasty and married into the local nobility. It was in this environment, moving between Naples, Rome, and Florence, that Degas forged his style.
The "Roasted Chestnuts" and the Old Masters
In Rome, Degas fell in with a merry society of French artists known as the Caldarrosti (the "roasted chestnuts"), which included the future composer Georges Bizet and the painter Gustave Moreau. Together, they theorised on art at the Café Greco. Degas was voracious in his study of the Renaissance, declaring his aim to seek "the love and spirit of Mantegna with the verve and colouring of Veronese."
However, unlike the future Impressionists who would obsess over capturing the outdoors, Degas found himself at odds with the landscape. Although he painted the Castello dell'Ovo in Naples, he confessed in July 1858 that "boredom quickly overtakes me when contemplating nature."
Memory over Nature
For Degas, art was an intellectual exercise rather than a mere recording of visual reality. He realised that direct observation often led to "clumsy sketches." He preferred to let his impressions filter through his mind, stating, "even my memory will do better than that."
By the time he returned to Paris in 1859, he had abandoned the path of a traditional landscape painter. His studies of Roman beggar women and his grandfather Hilaire—heralded a master of portraiture—readied him to embark on a career as a history painter, armed with a rigorous technique that owed more to the Old Masters than to the sunlight of Italy.
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