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Article: Edgar Degas in New Orleans.(WALKING through HISTORY)(Brief biography)
- Article from:
- Arts & Activities
- Article date:
- March 1, 2009
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2009 Publishers' Development Corporation. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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"Turkey buzzard." These were the only two words that Edgar Degas learned to speak in English when he sailed for America in 1872 with his brother, Rene, on the British ship, the Scotia. Edgar found the crew and passengers on the ship stiff and tedious. He used his notebook to make caricatures of them with birds flapping around them.
Docking in New York, the two brothers boarded a train for a four-day trip to New Orleans, the birthplace of his American-born Creole mother, Marie Celestine Musson. She was born to a prominent French-Creole family in New Orleans and had died when Edgar was barely 13 years old. Edgar later wrote letters home describing the amazing ...