Edgar Degas was born in Paris into a wealthy bourgeois family in 1834. In 1847, his mother died when he was thirteen years old, and he began to visit Parisian museums. An avid visitor to the Louvre, he showed an exceptional aptitude for drawing by copying artists such as Rembrandt. He was particularly attracted to the Italian Renaissance masters such as Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo. In the spirit of his father's wishes, Degas enrolled in the Faculty of Law, where his law studies began but were not completed.

Living off the family fortune and not seeking financial gain for his art, he studied painting in 1855 in the studio of Louis Lamothe, a pupil of Ingres. The artistic legacy of Ingres fascinated Degas and inspired him throughout his life. Considered an impressionist, Degas claimed to be a realist. However, he participated in several Impressionist exhibitions from 1874 to 1886. In the early 1870s, Degas suffered from progressive blindness. Blinded by sunlight, he painted almost exclusively interior scenes with artificial lighting, unlike the Impressionists of his time.

In 1912, in recognition of his growing appreciation throughout the world, Degas' works were shown in numerous exhibitions in France, Europe and the United States. The most popular of these were Race of Horses in a Landscape, The Opera Orchestra and his series of dancers such as Dancers in Pink and Ballerinas Adjusting Their Dresses. Like his work, Degas' works gradually found their way into important European and American private collections. The planned demolition of his house at 37 rue Victor-Masse, formerly rue Laval, where Degas had been a resident and artist for 22 years, forced the 78-year-old, almost blind artist to leave. Degas found a new residence at 6 boulevard de Clichy, but put aside all his works of art. He lived in extreme seclusion and received very little attention.

Edgar Degas died on 27 September 1917 of a stroke. The next day he was buried alongside his fellow artists in the family vault in the Cimetière du Nord in Montmartre.