Landscape

The work Landscape by Edgar Degas, created around 1892, represents a pivotal period of intense formal and technical experimentation late in the artist’s career. Although widely recognized for his studies of ballet dancers and bathers, Degas dedicated a significant, if less frequently studied, series to landscapes, often employing innovative and experimental printmaking methods. This particular piece is classified as a print, utilizing the challenging technique of monotype in oil colors, which was then meticulously heightened and refined with pastel.

The monotype process, where the artist paints directly onto a smooth plate and runs it through a press only once, results in a unique, highly textured impression. Degas was drawn to this technique because it offered remarkable speed and spontaneity, allowing him to capture the ephemeral effects of light and atmosphere. The initial oily print provides a foundational blur of color and form, which the artist subsequently defined using pastel. This layering of mediums transformed the basic oil print into a unique, highly finished drawing.

These late landscapes are characterized by their evocative, hazy scenes of nature, often created from memory or imagination rather than traditional en plein air observation. Degas’s combination of fluid monotype application and meticulous pastel drawing resulted in atmospheric effects that bridge the gap between Impressionism and nascent Modernist abstraction. As part of his comprehensive exploration into unconventional prints, Degas utilized these unique pieces as finished works of art rather than preparatory sketches. This striking work, an exceptional example of Degas’s restless experimentation with color and form, is housed in the permanent collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.