Degas and Évariste de Valernes

July 1856 – 1859

Three years in Italy

In July 1856 Degas left for Italy, where he stayed for three years. He copied Michelangelo, Raphael and Titian but, contrary to convention, usually picked out of an altarpiece a detail that caught his eye — a secondary figure or a head that he treated as a portrait.

1862–1864

Meets Édouard Manet

Manet introduced Degas to the circle of future Impressionists. Degas shared their rejection of the academic Salon but would not work in the open air.

1865

Debut at the Salon of 1865

The jury accepted “Scene of War in the Middle Ages”, Degas's first picture in the Salon, which attracted little attention. For the next five years he exhibited annually but sent no more history paintings.

late 1860s

The turn to modern life: racecourses, milliners, laundresses

By the late 1860s Degas had moved from history painting to an original observation of contemporary life: racecourse scenes let him paint horses and riders in a modern setting, and then he turned to women at work — milliners and laundresses.

1870

A volunteer in the war; a flaw in his eyesight

When the Franco-Prussian War broke out Degas volunteered; at the first shooting practice it turned out that he saw poorly with his right eye. It was the first sign of the macular degeneration that left him almost blind at the end of his life; he was transferred to the artillery and served there to the end of the war.

early 1870s

Meets Durand-Ruel

Degas met the dealer Durand-Ruel, later the most prominent of the trusted dealers with whom he planned his strategy at auctions.