125-671: The Walker Art Gallery is an art gallery in Liverpool , which houses one of the largest art collections in England outside London . It is part of the National Museums Liverpool group. The Walker Art Gallery's collection dates from 1819 when the Liverpool Royal Institution acquired 37 paintings from the collection of William Roscoe , who had to sell his collection following the failure of his banking business, though it
250-449: A history painter , a calling for which he was well prepared by his rigorous academic training and close study of classical Western art. In his early thirties he changed course, and by bringing the traditional methods of a history painter to bear on contemporary subject matter, he became a classical painter of modern life. Degas was born in Paris , France , into a moderately wealthy family. He
375-408: A "blossoming". In part Degas' originality consisted in disregarding the smooth, full surfaces and contours of classical sculpture ... [and] in garnishing his little statue with real hair and clothing made to scale like the accoutrements for a doll. These relatively "real" additions heightened the illusion, but they also posed searching questions, such as what can be referred to as "real" when art
500-671: A city which also suffered severe aerial bombing during the war. In the 1950s and 1960s, much of the immediate reconstruction that took place in the city centre proved to be deeply unpopular. The historic portions of the city that had survived German bombing suffered extensive destruction during urban renewal. It has been argued that the so-called "Shankland Plan" of the 1960s, named after the town planner Graeme Shankland , led to compromised town planning and vast road-building schemes that devastated and divided inner city neighbourhoods. Concrete brutalist architecture , compromised visions, botched projects and grand designs that were never realised became
625-436: A cloth tutu, it provoked a strong reaction from critics, most of whom found its realism extraordinary but denounced the dancer as ugly. In a review, J.-K. Huysmans wrote: "The terrible reality of this statuette evidently produces uneasiness in the spectators; all their notions about sculpture, about those cold inanimate whitenesses ... are here overturned. The fact is that with his first attempt Monsieur Degas has revolutionized
750-455: A conundrum to art historians in search of a literary source— Thérèse Raquin has been suggested —but it may be a depiction of prostitution . As his subject matter changed, so, too, did Degas's technique. The dark palette that bore the influence of Dutch painting gave way to the use of vivid colors and bold brushstrokes. Paintings such as Place de la Concorde read as "snapshots," freezing moments of time to portray them accurately, imparting
875-621: A copyist in the Louvre Museum , but his father expected him to go to law school . Degas duly enrolled at the Faculty of Law of the University of Paris in November 1853 but applied little effort to his studies. In 1855, he met Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres , whom he revered and whose advice he never forgot: "Draw lines, young man, and still more lines, both from life and from memory, and you will become
1000-757: A detail that had caught his attention: a secondary figure, or a head which he treated as a portrait. Upon his return to France in 1859, Degas moved into a Paris studio large enough to permit him to begin painting The Bellelli Family —an imposing canvas he intended for exhibition in the Salon , although it remained unfinished until 1867. He also began work on several history paintings : Alexander and Bucephalus and The Daughter of Jephthah in 1859–60; Sémiramis Building Babylon in 1860; and Young Spartans Exercising around 1860. In 1861, Degas visited his childhood friend Paul Valpinçon in Ménil-Hubert-en-Exmes , and made
1125-678: A good artist." In April of that year Degas was admitted to the École des Beaux-Arts . He studied drawing there with Louis Lamothe , under whose guidance he flourished, following the style of Ingres. In July 1856, Degas traveled to Italy , where he would remain for the next three years. In 1858, while staying with his aunt's family in Naples , he made the first studies for his early masterpiece The Bellelli Family . He also drew and painted numerous copies of works by Michelangelo , Raphael , Titian , and other Renaissance artists, but—contrary to conventional practice—he usually selected from an altarpiece
1250-640: A hint of anti-Semitism. In 1881, he exhibited two pastels, Criminal Physiognomies , that depicted juvenile gang members recently convicted of murder in the "Abadie Affair". Degas had attended their trial with sketchbook in hand, and his numerous drawings of the defendants reveal his interest in the atavistic features thought by some 19th-century scientists to be evidence of innate criminality. In his paintings of dancers and laundresses, he reveals their occupations not only by their dress and activities but also by their body type: his ballerinas exhibit an athletic physicality, while his laundresses are heavy and solid. By
1375-480: A hundred things and not finish one of them", and was in any case notoriously reluctant to consider a painting complete. His interest in portraiture led Degas to study carefully the ways in which a person's social stature or form of employment may be revealed by their physiognomy , posture, dress, and other attributes. In his 1879 Portraits, At the Stock Exchange , he portrayed a group of Jewish businessmen with
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#17328373368371500-451: A job. From 1870 Degas increasingly painted ballet subjects, partly because they sold well and provided him with needed income after his brother's debts had left the family bankrupt. Degas began to paint café life as well, in works such as L'Absinthe and Singer with a Glove . His paintings often hinted at narrative content in a way that was highly ambiguous; for example, Interior (which has also been called The Rape ) has presented
1625-544: A joint European Capital of Culture for 2008. The celebrations included the erection of La Princesse , a large mechanical spider 20 metres high and weighing 37 tonnes, which represented the "eight legs" of Liverpool: honour, history, music, the Mersey, the ports, governance, sunshine and culture. La Princesse roamed the streets of the city during the festivities, and concluded by entering the Queensway Tunnel . Spearheaded by
1750-466: A less idealized treatment of the figure is already apparent. During his early career, Degas also painted portraits of individuals and groups; an example of the latter is The Bellelli Family ( c. 1858–67 ), an ambitious and psychologically poignant portrayal of his aunt, her husband, and their children. In this painting, as in Young Spartans Exercising and many later works, Degas
1875-523: A little-known group of 73 plaster casts, more or less closely resembling Degas's original wax sculptures, was presented as having been discovered among the materials bought by the Airaindor Foundry (later known as Airaindor-Valsuani) from Hébrard's descendants. Bronzes cast from these plasters were issued between 2004 and 2016 by Airaindor-Valsuani in editions inconsistently marked and thus of unknown size. There has been substantial controversy concerning
2000-462: A model upon learning she was Protestant . Although Degas painted a number of Jewish subjects from 1865 to 1870, his 1879 painting Portraits at the Stock Exchange may be a watershed in his political opinions. The painting is a portrait of the Jewish banker Ernest May—who may have commissioned the work and was its first owner—and is widely regarded as anti-Semitic by modern experts. The facial features of
2125-560: A modern context. He began to paint women at work, milliners and laundresses . His milliner series is interpreted as artistic self-reflection. Mlle. Fiocre in the Ballet La Source , exhibited in the Salon of 1868, was his first major work to introduce a subject with which he would become especially identified, dancers. In many subsequent paintings, dancers were shown backstage or in rehearsal, emphasizing their status as professionals doing
2250-515: A pioneer of scientific toponymy in Wales, in "Place Names of North Wales", does not attempt to explain it beyond noting that " lleifiad " is used as a Welsh equivalent of "Liver". A derivative form of a learned borrowing into Welsh ( * llaf ) of Latin lāma (slough, bog, fen) to give " lleifiad " is possible, but unproven. In the Middle Ages , Liverpool existed firstly as farmland within
2375-520: A pioneering elevated electrical railway ; it was granted city status in 1880 and was moved from Lancashire to the newly created county of Merseyside in 1974 . Like many other British cities, it entered a period of decline in the mid-20th century; however, it has experienced significant and ongoing regeneration since the European Union selected it as the European Capital of Culture in 2008, which
2500-407: A regenerated Albert Dock which proved to be a catalyst for further regeneration. In the mid-1990s, the city enjoyed growth rates higher than the national average. At the end of the 20th century, Liverpool was concentrating on regeneration, a process that continues today. Ongoing regeneration combined with the hosting of internationally significant events has helped to re-purpose Liverpool as one of
2625-478: A sense of movement. The lack of color in the 1874 Ballet Rehearsal on Stage and the 1876 The Ballet Instructor can be said to link with his interest in the new technique of photography. The changes to his palette, brushwork, and sense of composition all evidence the influence that both the Impressionist movement and modern photography, with its spontaneous images and off-kilter angles, had on his work. Blurring
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#17328373368372750-499: A wide collection of prints, drawings and watercolours, 20th-century works by artists such as Lucian Freud , David Hockney and Gilbert and George and a major sculpture collection. The select collection of minor or decorative arts covers a wide range, from Gothic ivories to British ceramics up to the present day. The Gallery also houses the only original Stuart Sutcliffe painting on permanent display in Liverpool. On 17 December 2011,
2875-473: Is also home to the UK's oldest surviving classical orchestra ( Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra ) and repertory theatre ( Liverpool Playhouse ). In 1864, Peter Ellis built the world's first iron-framed, curtain-walled office building, Oriel Chambers , which was a prototype of the skyscraper. The UK's first purpose-built department store was Compton House , completed in 1867 for the retailer J.R. Jeffrey. It
3000-565: Is also the home of the earliest black community in the UK , the earliest Chinese community in Europe , and the first mosque in England. The name comes from the Old English lifer , meaning thick or muddy water, and pōl , meaning a pool or creek, and is first recorded around 1190 as Liuerpul . According to the Cambridge Dictionary of English Place-Names , "The original reference
3125-418: Is beyond dispute, claims are sometimes made that the name Liverpool is of Welsh origin, but these are without foundation. The Welsh name for Liverpool is Lerpwl , from a former English local form Leerpool. This is a reduction of the form "Leverpool" with the loss of the intervocalic [v] (seen in other English names and words e.g. Daventry (Northamptonshire) > Danetry, never-do-well > ne’er-do-well). In
3250-457: Is concerned. The suite of pastels depicting nudes that Degas exhibited in the eighth Impressionist Exhibition in 1886 produced "the most concentrated body of critical writing on the artist during his lifetime ... The overall reaction was positive and laudatory". Recognized as an important artist in his lifetime, Degas is now considered "one of the founders of Impressionism". Though his work crossed many stylistic boundaries, his involvement with
3375-677: Is displayed in Room three, which is one of the 17th-century Old Master galleries. As of 2 July 2013, the La Masseuse sculpture by Edgar Degas, previously owned by Lucian Freud , found a permanent home at the Walker Art Gallery, thanks to the donation-in-payment system put in place by the Arts Council England. The first John Moores Contemporary Painting Prize exhibition was held in 1957. Sponsored by Sir John Moores, founder of Littlewoods,
3500-565: Is named after the city. As early as 1851, the city was described as "the New York of Europe". During the late 19th and early 20th century, Liverpool was attracting immigrants from across Europe. This resulted in the construction of a diverse array of religious buildings in the city for the new ethnic and religious groups, many of which are still in use today. The Deutsche Kirche Liverpool , Greek Orthodox Church of St Nicholas , Gustav Adolf Church and Princes Road Synagogue were all established in
3625-519: Is often identified as an Impressionist , an understandable but insufficient description. Impressionism originated in the 1860s and 1870s and grew, in part, from the realism of painters such as Courbet and Corot . The Impressionists painted the realities of the world around them using bright, "dazzling" colors, concentrating primarily on the effects of light, and hoping to infuse their scenes with immediacy. They wanted to express their visual experience in that exact moment. Technically, Degas differs from
3750-464: Is often used as a filming location due to its distinctive architecture , and was the fifth most visited UK city by foreign tourists in 2022. It is the only UNESCO City of Music in England and has produced countless musicians , most notably the Beatles , who are widely regarded as the most influential band of all time ; musicians from the city have released more UK No. 1 hit singles than anywhere else in
3875-410: Is said to have been designed by King John near the same time it was granted a royal charter , making it a borough. The original seven streets were laid out in the shape of a double cross: Bank Street (now Water Street ), Castle Street , Chapel Street , Dale Street , Juggler Street (now High Street ), Moor Street (now Tithebarn Street ) and Whiteacre Street (now Old Hall Street ). Liverpool Castle
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4000-601: Is the world's oldest existing organisation devoted to the promotion of spaceflight . Its journal, the Journal of the British Interplanetary Society , is the longest-running astronautical publication in the world. Degas Edgar Degas ( UK : / ˈ d eɪ ɡ ɑː / , US : / d eɪ ˈ ɡ ɑː , d ə ˈ ɡ ɑː / ; born Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas , French: [ilɛːʁ ʒɛʁmɛ̃ ɛdɡaʁ də ɡa] ; 19 July 1834 – 27 September 1917)
4125-502: The British Armed Forces , settled in Liverpool and other port cities. In June 1919, they were subject to attack by whites in racial riots; residents in the port included Swedish immigrants , and both groups had to compete with native people from Liverpool for jobs and housing. In this period, race riots also took place in other port cities. The Housing Act 1919 resulted in mass council housing being built across Liverpool during
4250-532: The English Civil War , including a brief siege in 1644. In 1699, the same year as its first recorded slave ship , Liverpool Merchant , set sail for Africa, Liverpool was made a parish by Act of Parliament . But arguably, the legislation of 1695 that reformed the Liverpool council was of more significance to its subsequent development. Since Roman times , the nearby city of Chester on the River Dee had been
4375-541: The Eurovision Song Contest 2023 . Liverpool has been a centre of invention and innovation. Railways, transatlantic steamships , municipal trams, and electric trains were all pioneered in Liverpool as modes of mass transit. In 1829 and 1836, the first railway tunnels in the world were constructed under Liverpool ( Wapping Tunnel ). From 1950 to 1951, the world's first scheduled passenger helicopter service ran between Liverpool and Cardiff . The first School for
4500-573: The Great War was marked by social unrest, as society grappled with the massive war losses of young men, as well as trying to re-integrate veterans into civilian life and the economy. Unemployment and poor living standards greeted many ex-servicemen. Union organising and strikes took place in numerous locations, including a police strike in Liverpool among the City Police . Numerous colonial soldiers and sailors from Africa and India, who had served with
4625-689: The Liverpool Biennial . Liverpool Liverpool is a cathedral city , port city , and metropolitan borough in Merseyside , England. It had a population of 496,770 in 2022. The city is located on the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary , adjacent to the Irish Sea , and is approximately 178 miles (286 km) northwest of London . Liverpool is the fifth largest city in the United Kingdom and
4750-511: The Lycée Louis-le-Grand . His mother died when he was thirteen, and the main influences on him for the remainder of his youth were his father and several unmarried uncles. Degas began to paint early in life. By the time he graduated from the Lycée with a baccalauréat in literature in 1853, at age 18, he had turned a room in his home into an artist's studio. Upon graduating, he registered as
4875-692: The Macgregor Laird expedition to the Niger River, at that time in progress. This is to a painting by Samuel Austin , Liverpool, from the Mersey . Britain was a major market for cotton imported from the Deep South of the United States, which fed the textile industry in the country. Given the crucial place cotton held in the city's economy, during the American Civil War Liverpool was, in
5000-514: The Paradise Project , a £920 million development based on Paradise Street . This produced one of the most significant changes to Liverpool's city centre since the post-war reconstruction. Renamed as ' Liverpool One ,' the centre opened in May 2008. In 2007, events and celebrations took place in honour of the 800th anniversary of the founding of the borough of Liverpool. Liverpool was designated as
5125-554: The Queensway Tunnel linking Liverpool and Birkenhead . Described as "the eighth wonder of the world" at the time of its construction, it was the longest underwater tunnel in the world for 24 years. In 1897, the Lumière brothers filmed Liverpool, including what is believed to be the world's first tracking shot , taken from the Liverpool Overhead Railway , the world's first elevated electrified railway. The Overhead Railway
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5250-561: The River Dee continued to silt up, Liverpool began to grow with increasing rapidity. The first commercial wet dock was built in Liverpool in 1715. Substantial profits from the slave trade and tobacco helped the town to prosper and rapidly grow, although several prominent local men, including William Rathbone , William Roscoe and Edward Rushton , were at the forefront of the local abolitionist movement . The 19th century saw Liverpool rise to global economic importance. Pioneering, world first , technology and civic facilities launched in
5375-469: The West Derby Hundred before growing in to a small town of farmers, fishermen and tradesmen and tactical army base for King John of England . The town was planned with its own castle , although due to outbreaks of disease and its subordinance to the nearby Roman port of Chester , the town's growth and prosperity stagnated until the late 17th and early 18th centuries. Substantial growth took place in
5500-482: The sea-holly was Liverpool's final choice. The initiative was designed to highlight growing threats to the UK's flower species and also ask the public about which flowers best represented their county. Capitalising on the popularity of 1960s rock groups, such as the Beatles , as well as the city's world-class art galleries, museums and landmarks, tourism and culture have become a significant factor in Liverpool's economy. In 2004, property developer Grosvenor started
5625-484: The " Merseybeat " sound, which became synonymous with the Beatles and fellow Liverpudlian rock bands. Influenced by American rhythm and blues and rock music, they also in turn strongly affected American music. The Beatles became internationally known in the early 1960s and performed around the world together ; they were, and continue to be, the most commercially successful and musically influential band in popular history. Their co-founder, singer, and composer John Lennon
5750-533: The 1800s to serve Liverpool's growing German, Greek, Nordic and Jewish communities, respectively. One of Liverpool's oldest surviving churches, St. Peter's Roman Catholic Church , served the Polish community in its final years as a place of worship. The 20th century saw Liverpool's established rank as a global economic powerhouse challenged. Its strategic location as an international seaport made it particularly vulnerable in two World wars . Economic depressions (both in
5875-557: The 1840s when Irish migrants began arriving by the hundreds of thousands as a result of the Great Famine . While many Irish settled during this time in the city, a large percentage also emigrated to the United States or moved to the industrial centres of Lancashire , Yorkshire and the Midlands . In her poetical illustration "Liverpool" (1832), which celebrates the city's worldwide commerce, Letitia Elizabeth Landon refers specifically to
6000-472: The 1920s and 1930s. In the 1920s and 1930s, as much as 15% of the city's population (around 140,000 people) was relocated from the inner-city to new purpose built, lower density suburban housing estates, based on the belief that this would improve their standard of living, though the overall benefits have been contested. Numerous private homes were also built during this era. During the Great Depression of
6125-411: The 19th century, some Welsh publications used the name " Lle'r Pwll " ("(the) place (of) the pool"), a reinterpretation of Lerpwl , probably in the belief that " Lle'r Pwll " was the original form. Another name, which is widely known even today, is Llynlleifiad , again a 19th-century coining. " Llyn " is pool, but " lleifiad " has no obvious meaning. G. Melville Richards (1910–1973),
6250-814: The Blind , Mechanics' Institute , High School for Girls, council house, and Juvenile Court were all founded in Liverpool. Charities such as the RSPCA , NSPCC , Age Concern , Relate , and Citizen's Advice Bureau all evolved from work in the city. The first lifeboat station, public bath and wash-house, sanitary act, medical officer for health ( William Henry Duncan ), district nurse, slum clearance , purpose-built ambulance, X-ray medical diagnosis, school of tropical medicine ( Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine ), motorised municipal fire-engine, free school meal, cancer research centre, and zoonosis research centre all originated in Liverpool. The first British Nobel Prize
6375-625: The Impressionist movement. Degas's style reflects his deep respect for the old masters (he was an enthusiastic copyist well into middle age) and his great admiration for Ingres and Delacroix. He was also a collector of Japanese prints , whose compositional principles influenced his work, as did the vigorous realism of popular illustrators such as Daumier and Gavarni . Although famous for horses and dancers, Degas began with conventional historical paintings such as The Daughter of Jephthah ( c. 1859–61 ) and Young Spartans Exercising ( c. 1860–62 ), in which his gradual progress toward
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#17328373368376500-478: The Impressionists in that he continually belittled their practice of painting en plein air . You know what I think of people who work out in the open. If I were the government I would have a special brigade of gendarmes to keep an eye on artists who paint landscapes from nature. Oh, I don't mean to kill anyone; just a little dose of bird-shot now and then as a warning. "He was often as anti-impressionist as
6625-448: The Impressionists, however, and rejected the rigid rules and judgments of the Salon. Degas's work was controversial, but was generally admired for its draftsmanship. His La Petite Danseuse de Quatorze Ans , or Little Dancer of Fourteen Years , which he displayed at the sixth Impressionist exhibition in 1881, was probably his most controversial piece; some critics decried what they thought its "appalling ugliness" while others saw in it
6750-584: The Liverpool Society for the Fine Arts, founded in 1858. The competition between the academy and society eventually led to both collapsing. William Brown Library and Museum opened in 1860, named after a Liverpool merchant whose generosity enabled the Town Council to act upon an 1852 Act of Parliament which allowed the establishment of a public library, museum and art gallery, and in 1871 the council organised
6875-519: The Mersey, and the CSS Shenandoah surrendered there (being the final surrender at the end of the war). The city was also the center of Confederate purchasing war materiel, including arms and ammunition, uniforms, and naval supplies to be smuggled by British blockade runners to the South . For periods during the 19th century, the wealth of Liverpool exceeded that of London, and Liverpool's Custom House
7000-718: The National Olympian Association in Liverpool, a forerunner of the British Olympic Association . Its articles of foundation provided the framework for the Olympic Charter . A concept devised by retail entrepreneur David Lewis , the first Christmas grotto opened in Lewis's department store in Liverpool in 1879. Sir Alfred Lewis Jones , a shipowner, introduced bananas to the UK via Liverpool's docks in 1884. The Mersey Railway , opened in 1886, incorporated
7125-529: The Queen recognised Liverpool as "one of the most distinctive and energetic parts of the United Kingdom", and paid tribute to the city's "major orchestras, world-class museums and galleries". She also acknowledged Liverpool's bid to become the European Capital of Culture . To celebrate the Golden Jubilee of Elizabeth II in 2002, the conservation charity Plantlife organised a competition to choose county flowers ;
7250-515: The UK's first Underwriters' Association and the first Institute of Accountants . The Western world's first financial derivatives (cotton futures) were traded on the Liverpool Cotton Exchange in the late 1700s. In the arts, Liverpool was home to the first lending library ( The Lyceum ), athenaeum society ( Liverpool Athenaeum ), arts centre ( Bluecoat Chambers ), and public art conservation centre ( National Conservation Centre ). It
7375-414: The United Kingdom and across the world), changing housing patterns and containerisation in the maritime industry contributed to a downtrend in the city's productivity and prosperity. Despite this, the city's influence on global popular culture excelled and by the end of the century, the continuing process of urban renewal paved the way for the redefined modern city of the 21st century. The period after
7500-463: The Walker Art Gallery got a new addition to its collection – a statue of a priest vandalised by Banksy. The renowned graffiti artist has sawn off the face of an 18th-century replica stone bust and glued on a selection of bathroom tiles. The resulting 'pixellated' portrait is entitled Cardinal Sin and is believed to be a comment on the abuse scandal in the Church and its subsequent cover-up. This piece of art
7625-587: The Walker Art Gallery was opened on 6 September 1877 by Edward Henry Stanley, 15th Earl of Derby . It is named after its founding benefactor, Sir Andrew Barclay Walker (1824–1893), a former mayor of Liverpool and wealthy brewer born in Ayrshire who expanded the family business to England and moved to live in Gateacre . In 1893, the Liverpool Royal Institution placed its collection on long-term loan to
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#17328373368377750-400: The anti-Semitic "Anti-Dreyfusards" until his death. During his life, public reception of Degas's work ranged from admiration to contempt. As a promising artist in the conventional mode, Degas had a number of paintings accepted in the Salon between 1865 and 1870. These works received praise from Pierre Puvis de Chavannes and the critic Jules-Antoine Castagnary . He soon joined forces with
7875-411: The area. More immigrants arrived after World War II, mostly settling in older inner-city areas such as Toxteth , where housing was less expensive. The black population of Liverpool was recorded at 1.90% in 2011. In the 2021 Census , 5.2% described themselves as black African, Caribbean, mixed white and black African, mixed white and Caribbean or 'other black'. In the 1960s, Liverpool was the centre of
8000-414: The authenticity of these plasters as well as the circumstances and date of their creation as proposed by their promoters. While several museum and academic professionals accept them as presented, most of the recognized Degas scholars have declined to comment. Degas, who believed that "the artist must live alone, and his private life must remain unknown", lived an outwardly uneventful life. In company he
8125-657: The banker in profile have been directly compared to those in the anti-Semitic cartoons rampant in Paris at the time, while those of the background characters have drawn comparisons to Degas' earlier work Criminal Physiognomies . The Dreyfus Affair , which divided opinion in Paris from the 1890s to the early 1900s, intensified his anti-Semitism. By the mid-1890s, he had broken off relations with all of his Jewish friends, publicly disavowed his previous friendships with Jewish artists, and refused to use models who he believed might be Jewish. He remained an outspoken anti-Semite and member of
8250-511: The central government in London. Liverpool in the 1980s has been labelled as Britain's 'shock city'. Once the second city of the British Empire which rivalled the capital city in global significance, Liverpool had collapsed in to its 'nadir' at the depths of post-colonial , post-industrial Britain. In the late 20th century, Liverpool's economy began to recover. The late 1980s saw the opening of
8375-523: The city and form an important part of the economy. In June 2014, Prime Minister David Cameron launched the International Festival for Business in Liverpool, the world's largest business event in 2014, and the largest in the UK since the Festival of Britain in 1951. The Labour Party has chosen Liverpool numerous times since the mid 2010s for their annual Labour Party Conference . Liverpool hosted
8500-494: The city to serve the accelerating population which was fuelled by an influx of ethnic and religious communities from all around the world. By the start of the 19th century, a large volume of trade was passing through Liverpool, and the construction of major buildings reflected this wealth. In 1830, Liverpool and Manchester became the first cities to have an intercity rail link, through the Liverpool and Manchester Railway . The population continued to rise rapidly, especially during
8625-473: The city's docks became largely obsolete, and dock workers were made unemployed. By the early 1980s, unemployment rates in Liverpool were among the highest in the UK, standing at 17% by January 1982 although, this was about half the level of unemployment that had affected the city during the Great Depression some 50 years previously. During this period, Liverpool became a hub of fierce left-wing opposition to
8750-484: The city. By the 2020s, urban regeneration throughout the city continues. Liverpool Waters , a mixed-use development in the city's disused northern docklands, has been identified as one of the largest megaprojects in the UK's history. Everton's new stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock was regarded as the largest single-site private sector development in the United Kingdom at the time of construction. Major events, business and political conferences regularly take place in
8875-452: The competition has been held every two years ever since and is the biggest painting prize in the UK. There is a regular programme of temporary exhibitions which in 2009-10 has included Aubrey Williams, Bridget Riley, Sickert and Freud. In 2004, the gallery staged The Stuckists Punk Victorian , the first national museum exhibition of the Stuckist art movement. The Gallery also takes part in
9000-617: The critics who reviewed the shows", according to art historian Carol Armstrong ; as Degas himself explained, "no art was ever less spontaneous than mine. What I do is the result of reflection and of the study of the great masters; of inspiration, spontaneity, temperament, I know nothing." Nonetheless, he is described more accurately as an Impressionist than as a member of any other movement. His scenes of Parisian life, his off-center compositions, his experiments with color and form, and his friendship with several key Impressionist artists—most notably Mary Cassatt and Manet—all relate him intimately to
9125-527: The decade beginning in 1874. Disenchanted by now with the Salon, he instead joined a group of young artists who were organizing an independent exhibiting society. The group soon became known as the Impressionists. Between 1874 and 1886, they mounted eight art shows, known as the Impressionist Exhibitions. Degas took a leading role in organizing the exhibitions, and showed his work in all but one of them, despite his persistent conflicts with others in
9250-521: The distinction between portraiture and genre pieces, he painted his bassoonist friend, Désiré Dihau , in The Orchestra of the Opera (c. 1870) as one of fourteen musicians in an orchestra pit, viewed as though by a member of the audience. Above the musicians can be seen only the legs and tutus of the dancers onstage, their figures cropped by the edge of the painting. Art historian Charles Stuckey has compared
9375-607: The earliest of his many studies of horses. He exhibited at the Salon for the first time in 1865, when the jury accepted his painting Scene of War in the Middle Ages , which attracted little attention. Although he exhibited annually in the Salon during the next five years, he submitted no more history paintings, and his Scene from the Steeplechase: The Fallen Jockey (Salon of 1866) signaled his growing commitment to contemporary subject matter. The change in his art
9500-562: The early 1930s, unemployment peaked at around 30% in the city. Liverpool was the site of Britain's first provincial airport , operating from 1930. During the Second World War , the critical strategic importance of Liverpool was recognised by both Hitler and Churchill . The city was heavily bombed by the Germans, suffering a blitz second only to London's. The pivotal Battle of the Atlantic
9625-521: The end of 1907, and is believed to have continued making sculptures as late as 1910, he apparently ceased working in 1912, when the impending demolition of his longtime residence on the rue Victor Massé forced him to move to quarters on the Boulevard de Clichy . He never married, and spent the last years of his life, nearly blind, restlessly wandering the streets of Paris before dying in September 1917. Degas
9750-523: The entrance to the Queensway Tunnel . The other major art gallery in Liverpool is Tate Liverpool , at the Albert Dock , which houses modern art. The Walker's collection includes Italian and Netherlandish paintings from 1300 to 1550, European art from 1550 to 1900, including works by Giambattista Pittoni , Rembrandt , Poussin and Degas , 18th and 19th-century British art, including a major collection of Victorian painting and many Pre-Raphaelite works,
9875-614: The figure, the pictures created in this late period of his life bear little superficial resemblance to his early paintings. In point of fact, these paintings—created late in his life and after the heyday of the Impressionist movement—most vividly use the coloristic techniques of Impressionism. For all the stylistic evolution, certain features of Degas's work remained the same throughout his life. He always painted indoors, preferring to work in his studio from memory, photographs, or live models. The figure remained his primary subject; his few landscapes were produced from memory or imagination. It
10000-508: The first Liverpool Autumn Exhibition, held at the new library and museum. The success of the exhibition enabled the Library, Museum and Arts Committee to purchase works for the council's permanent collection, buying around 150 works between 1871 and 1910. Works acquired included WF Yeames ' And when did you last see your father? and Dante Gabriel Rossetti 's Dante's Dream . Designed by local architects Cornelius Sherlock and H. H. Vale ,
10125-409: The fore and he broke with all his Jewish friends. His argumentative nature was deplored by Renoir, who said of him: "What a creature he was, that Degas! All his friends had to leave him; I was one of the last to go, but even I couldn't stay till the end." After 1890, Degas's eyesight, which had long troubled him, deteriorated further. Although he is known to have been working in pastel as late as
10250-566: The formation of the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority in a form of devolution . With a devolved budget granted by central government , the authority now oversees and invests in foremost strategic affairs throughout the Liverpool City Region , including major regeneration projects. The authority, along with Liverpool City Council itself, has embarked on long-term plans to grow the population and economy of
10375-527: The gallery and in 1948 presented William Roscoe's collection and other works. This occurred during post-war reconstruction when the gallery was closed, re-opening in 1951. During the Second World War the gallery was taken over by the Ministry of Food and the collection was dispersed for safety. Extensions to the gallery were opened in 1884 and 1933 (following a two-year closure) when the gallery re-opened with an exhibition including Picasso and Gauguin . In 2002
10500-530: The gallery re-opened following a major refurbishment. In 1986, the gallery achieved national status, as part of the National Museums and Galleries on Merseyside . The gallery is housed in a neo-Classical building located on William Brown Street . The neighbouring area includes the William Brown Library , World Museum Liverpool , St. George's Hall , Wellington's Column , Lime Street Station and
10625-520: The group's exhibitions. The resulting rancor within the group contributed to its disbanding in 1886. As his financial situation improved through sales of his own work, he was able to indulge his passion for collecting works by artists he admired: old masters such as El Greco and such contemporaries as Manet , Cassatt , Pissarro , Cézanne , Gauguin , Van Gogh , and Édouard Brandon . Three artists he idolized, Ingres , Delacroix , and Daumier , were especially well represented in his collection. In
10750-523: The group. He had little in common with Monet and the other landscape painters in the group, whom he mocked for painting outdoors . Conservative in his social attitudes, he abhorred the scandal created by the exhibitions, as well as the publicity and advertising that his colleagues sought. He also deeply disliked being associated with the term "Impressionist", which the press had coined and popularized, and insisted on including non-Impressionist artists such as Jean-Louis Forain and Jean-François Raffaëlli in
10875-586: The largest settlement in Merseyside. It is part of the Liverpool City Region , a combined authority with a population of over 1.5 million. Established as a borough in Lancashire in 1207, Liverpool became a significant town in the late 17th century, when the port at nearby Chester began to silt up. The Port of Liverpool became heavily involved in the Atlantic slave trade , with the first slave ship departing from
11000-481: The late 1880s, Degas also developed a passion for photography. He photographed many of his friends, often by lamplight, as in his double portrait of Renoir and Mallarmé . Other photographs, depicting dancers and nudes, were used for reference in some of Degas's drawings, and paintings. As the years passed, Degas became isolated, due in part to his belief that a painter could have no personal life. The Dreyfus Affair controversy brought his anti-Semitic leanings to
11125-606: The later 1870s, Degas had mastered not only the traditional medium of oil on canvas , but pastel as well. The dry medium, which he applied in complex layers and textures, enabled him more easily to reconcile his facility for line with a growing interest in expressive color. In the mid-1870s, he also returned to the medium of etching , which he had neglected for ten years. At first he was guided in this by his old friend Ludovic-Napoléon Lepic , himself an innovator in its use, and began experimenting with lithography and monotype . He produced some 300 monotypes over two periods, from
11250-406: The mid-1870s to the mid-1880s and again in the early 1890s. He was especially fascinated by the effects produced by monotype and frequently reworked the printed images with pastel. By 1880, sculpture had become one more strand to Degas's continuing endeavor to explore different media, although the artist displayed only one sculpture publicly during his lifetime. These changes in media engendered
11375-558: The mid-late 18th century when the town became the most heavily involved European port in the Atlantic slave trade . King John 's letters patent of 1207 announced the foundation of the borough of Liverpool (then spelt as Liuerpul ). There is no evidence that the place had previously been a centre of any trade. The creation of the borough was probably due to King John deciding it would be a convenient place to embark men and supplies for his Irish campaigns , in particular John's Irish campaign of 1209 . The original street plan of Liverpool
11500-421: The most visited, tourist orientated, cities in the United Kingdom. City leaders are focussing on long-term strategies to grow the city's population and economy, while national government explores the continuous potential for devolution in the city. In 2002, Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh visited Liverpool to mark the Golden Jubilee . On speaking to an audience at Liverpool Town Hall ,
11625-606: The multi-billion- pound Liverpool ONE development, regeneration continued throughout the 2010s. Some of the most significant redevelopment projects included new buildings in the Commercial District , King's Dock , Mann Island , around Lime Street , the Baltic Triangle , RopeWalks , and Edge Lane . Changes to Liverpool's governance took place in 2014. The local authority of Liverpool City Council decided to pool its power and resources with surrounding boroughs through
11750-513: The paintings that Degas would produce in later life. Degas began to draw and paint women drying themselves with towels, combing their hair, and bathing (see: After the Bath, Woman drying herself ). The strokes that model the form are scribbled more freely than before; backgrounds are simplified. The meticulous naturalism of his youth gave way to an increasing abstraction of form. Except for his characteristically brilliant draftsmanship and obsession with
11875-543: The region's principal port on the Irish Sea . However, as the Dee began to silt up , maritime trade from Chester became increasingly difficult and shifted towards Liverpool on the neighbouring River Mersey . The first of the Liverpool docks was constructed in 1715, and the system of docks gradually grew into a large interconnected system. As trade from the West Indies , including sugar, surpassed that of Ireland and Europe, and as
12000-464: The sculptures were not created as aids to painting, although the artist habitually explored ways of linking graphic art and oil painting, drawing and pastel, sculpture and photography. Degas assigned the same significance to sculpture as to drawing: "Drawing is a way of thinking, modelling another". After Degas's death, his heirs found in his studio 150 wax sculptures, many in disrepair. They consulted foundry owner Adrien Hébrard, who concluded that 74 of
12125-440: The subject of condemnation. Historian Raphael Samuel labelled Graeme Shankland "the butcher of Liverpool". A significant West Indian black community has existed in the city since the first two decades of the 20th century. Like most British cities and industrialised towns, Liverpool became home to a significant number of Commonwealth immigrants, beginning after World War I with colonial soldiers and sailors who had served in
12250-557: The town in 1699. The port also imported much of the cotton required by the neighbouring Lancashire textile mills , and became a major departure point for English and Irish emigrants to North America. Liverpool rose to global economic importance at the forefront of the Industrial Revolution in the 19th century and was home to the first intercity railway , the first non-combustible warehouse system (the Royal Albert Dock ), and
12375-418: The traditions of sculpture as he has long since shaken the conventions of painting." Degas created a substantial number of other sculptures during a span of four decades, but they remained unseen by the public until a posthumous exhibition in 1918. Neither The Little Dancer of Fourteen Years nor any of Degas's other sculptures were cast in bronze during the artist's lifetime. Degas scholars have agreed that
12500-716: The viewpoint to that of a distracted spectator at a ballet, and says that "it is Degas' fascination with the depiction of movement, including the movement of a spectator's eyes as during a random glance, that is properly speaking 'Impressionist'." Degas's mature style is distinguished by conspicuously unfinished passages, even in otherwise tightly rendered paintings. He frequently blamed his eye troubles for his inability to finish, an explanation that met with some skepticism from colleagues and collectors who reasoned, as Stuckey explains, that "his pictures could hardly have been executed by anyone with inadequate vision". The artist provided another clue when he described his predilection "to begin
12625-514: The waxes could be cast in bronze . It is assumed that, except for the Little Dancer Aged Fourteen , all Degas bronzes worldwide are cast from surmoulages [ fr ] (i.e., cast from bronze masters). A surmoulage bronze is a bit smaller, and shows less surface detail, than its original bronze mold. The Hébrard Foundry cast the bronzes from 1919 until 1936, and closed down in 1937, shortly before Hébrard's death. In 2004,
12750-672: The words of historian Sven Beckert , "the most pro-Confederate place in the world outside the Confederacy itself." Liverpool merchants helped to bring out cotton from ports blockaded by the Union Navy , built ships of war for the Confederacy , and supplied the South with military equipment and credit. During the war, the Confederate Navy ship, the CSS Alabama , was built at Birkenhead on
12875-419: The world's first tunnel under a tidal estuary and the world's first deep-level underground stations ( Liverpool James Street railway station ). In 1889, borough engineer John Alexander Brodie invented the football goal net. He was also a pioneer in the use of pre-fabricated housing and oversaw the construction of the UK's first ring road ( A5058 ) and intercity highway ( East Lancashire Road ), as well as
13000-444: The world. It has also produced many academics , actors , artists , comedians , filmmakers , poets , scientists , sportspeople , and writers . In sports, it is known as the home of Premier League football teams Everton FC and Liverpool FC . The world's oldest still-operating mainline train station, Liverpool Lime Street , is in the city centre; transport is also served by the underground Merseyrail network. The city's port
13125-452: Was a French Impressionist artist famous for his pastel drawings and oil paintings. Degas also produced bronze sculptures , prints , and drawings. Degas is especially identified with the subject of dance; more than half of his works depict dancers. Although Degas is regarded as one of the founders of Impressionism , he rejected the term, preferring to be called a realist , and did not paint outdoors as many Impressionists did. Degas
13250-422: Was a superb draftsman , and particularly masterly in depicting movement, as can be seen in his rendition of dancers and bathing female nudes . In addition to ballet dancers and bathing women, Degas painted racehorses and racing jockeys , as well as portraits. His portraits are notable for their psychological complexity and their portrayal of human isolation. At the beginning of his career, Degas wanted to be
13375-480: Was awarded in 1902 to Ronald Ross , professor at the School of Tropical Medicine, the first school of its kind in the world. Orthopaedic surgery was pioneered in Liverpool by Hugh Owen Thomas , and modern medical anaesthetics by Thomas Cecil Gray . The world's first integrated sewer system was constructed in Liverpool by James Newlands , appointed in 1847 as the UK's first borough engineer. Liverpool also founded
13500-404: Was built before 1235, it survived until it was demolished in the 1720s. By the middle of the 16th century, the population was still around 600, although this was likely to have fallen from an earlier peak of 1000 people due to slow trade and the effects of the plague . In the 17th century, there was slow progress in trade and population growth. Battles for control of the town were waged during
13625-442: Was drawn to the tensions present between men and women. In his early paintings, Degas already evidenced the mature style that he would later develop more fully by cropping subjects awkwardly and by choosing unusual viewpoints. By the late 1860s, Degas had shifted from his initial forays into history painting to an original observation of contemporary life. Racecourse scenes provided an opportunity to depict horses and their riders in
13750-657: Was found to be defective, and for the rest of his life his eye problems were a constant worry to him. After the war, Degas began in 1872 an extended stay in New Orleans , where his brother René and a number of other relatives lived. Staying at the home of his Creole uncle, Michel Musson, on Esplanade Avenue , Degas produced a number of works, many depicting family members. One of Degas's New Orleans works, A Cotton Office in New Orleans , garnered favorable attention back in France, and
13875-546: Was his only work purchased by a museum (the Pau ) during his lifetime. Degas returned to Paris in 1873 and his father died the following year, whereupon Degas learned that his brother René had amassed enormous business debts. To preserve his family's reputation, Degas sold his house and an art collection he had inherited, and used the money to pay off his brother's debts. Dependent for the first time in his life on sales of his artwork for income, he produced much of his greatest work during
14000-587: Was influenced primarily by the example of Édouard Manet , whom Degas had met in 1864 (while both were copying the same Diego Velázquez portrait in the Louvre, according to a story that may be apocryphal). Upon the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, Degas enlisted in the National Guard , where his partaking in the defense of Paris left him little time for painting. During rifle training his eyesight
14125-616: Was killed in New York City in 1980. Liverpool Airport was renamed after him in 2002, the first British airport to be named in honour of an individual. Previously part of Lancashire, and a county borough from 1889, Liverpool became a metropolitan borough within the newly created metropolitan county of Merseyside , in 1974. From the mid-1970s onwards, Liverpool's docks and traditional manufacturing industries declined due to restructuring of shipping and heavy industry, causing massive losses of jobs. The advent of containerisation meant that
14250-461: Was known for his wit, which could often be cruel. He was characterized as an "old curmudgeon" by the novelist George Moore , and he deliberately cultivated his reputation as a misanthropic bachelor. In the 1870s, Degas gravitated towards the republican circles of Léon Gambetta . However, his republicanism did not come untainted, and signs of the prejudice and irritability which would overtake him in old age were occasionally manifested. He fired
14375-404: Was most interested in the presentation of his paintings, patronizing Pierre Cluzel as a framer, and disliking ornate styles of the day, often insisting on his choices for the framing as a condition of purchase. Degas's only showing of sculpture during his life took place in 1881 when he exhibited The Little Dancer of Fourteen Years . A nearly life-size wax figure with real hair and dressed in
14500-462: Was not unusual for him to repeat a subject many times, varying the composition or treatment. He was a deliberative artist whose works, as Andrew Forge has written, "were prepared, calculated, practiced, developed in stages. They were made up of parts. The adjustment of each part to the whole, their linear arrangement, was the occasion for infinite reflection and experiment." Degas explained, "In art, nothing should look like chance, not even movement". He
14625-506: Was planned, fought and won from Liverpool. The Luftwaffe made 80 air raids on Merseyside , killing 2,500 people and causing damage to almost half the homes in the metropolitan area. Significant rebuilding followed the war, including massive housing estates and the Seaforth Dock , the largest dock project in Britain. Since 1952, Liverpool has been twinned with Cologne , Germany,
14750-461: Was reported to have generated over £800 million for the local economy within a year. The economy of Liverpool is diversified and encompasses tourism, culture , maritime , hospitality , healthcare , life sciences , advanced manufacturing, creative , and digital sectors. The city is home to the UK's second highest number of art galleries , national museums , listed buildings , and parks and open spaces , with only London having more. It
14875-639: Was saved from being broken up by his friends and associates. In 1843, the Royal Institution's collection was displayed in a purpose-built gallery next to the Institution's main premises. In 1850 negotiations by an association of citizens to take over the Institution's collection, for display in a proposed art gallery, library and museum, came to nothing. The collection grew over the following decades: in 1851 Liverpool Town Council bought Liverpool Academy 's diploma collection and further works were acquired from
15000-454: Was the first railway in the world to use electric multiple units , employ automatic signalling, and install an escalator. Liverpool inventor Frank Hornby was a visionary in toy development and manufacture, producing three of the most popular lines of toys in the 20th century: Meccano , Hornby Model Railways (both in 1901), and Dinky Toys in 1934. The British Interplanetary Society , founded in Liverpool in 1933 by Phillip Ellaby Cleator,
15125-485: Was the fourth largest in the UK in 2023, with numerous shipping and freight lines having headquarters and offices there. Residents of Liverpool are often called "Scousers" in reference to scouse , a local stew made popular by sailors in the city, while "Scouse" is also the most common name given to the distinctive local accent . The city's cultural and ethnic diversity has resulted from its history of attracting immigrants, especially from Ireland, Scandinavia, and Wales; it
15250-523: Was the largest store in the world at the time. Between 1862 and 1867, Liverpool held an annual Grand Olympic Festival . Devised by John Hulley and Charles Pierre Melly , these games were the first to be wholly amateur in nature and international in outlook. The programme of the first modern Olympiad in Athens in 1896 was almost identical to that of the Liverpool Olympics. In 1865, Hulley co-founded
15375-570: Was the oldest of five children of Célestine Musson De Gas, a Creole from New Orleans , Louisiana , and Augustin De Gas, a banker. His maternal grandfather Germain Musson was born in Port-au-Prince , Haiti , of French descent, and had settled in New Orleans in 1810. Degas (he adopted this less grandiose spelling of his family name when he became an adult) began his schooling at age eleven, enrolling in
15500-575: Was the single largest contributor to the British Exchequer . Liverpool was the only British city ever to have its own Whitehall office. During this century, at least 40% of the world's entire trade passed through Liverpool. In the early 19th century, Liverpool played a major role in the Antarctic sealing industry, in recognition of which Liverpool Beach in the South Shetland Islands
15625-512: Was to a pool or tidal creek now filled up into which two streams drained". The place appearing as Leyrpole , in a legal record of 1418, may also refer to Liverpool. Other origins of the name have been suggested, including "elverpool", a reference to the large number of eels in the Mersey . The adjective "Liverpudlian" was first recorded in 1833. Although the Old English origin of the name Liverpool
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