2-728-230 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Estérel Village, c. 1890. Spontaneously executed because the media dries quickly, monotypes reflect the artist’s first impulse. Printing also presents an element of chance, as the pressure of transferring the design blurs it, creating softened edges. Degas utilized the technique to construct forms with shadow and light by building broad tonal areas without relying on line. Inspired by a trip through the Burgundy countryside in 1890, he produced a group of relatively large monotypes using coloured inks for the first time. Manipulating oil colour with a rag, he fabricated vague landscape designs from his imagination, letting coloured masses represent earth, vegetation, and sky, creating an almost abstract visionary and evocative scene like in Estérel Village.