Alexander Fleming vs Edgar Degas
Two child prodigies, compared on what is actually documented: field, era, country and record. No invented numbers.
The record, side by side
| Alexander Fleming | Edgar Degas | |
| Field | Music | Art |
| Sub-field | Musician | Painting |
| Born | 1881 | 1834 |
| Died | 1955 | 1917 |
| Country of birth | SCT | France |
| Star sign | Leo | Cancer |
Who they are
Alexander Fleming
In September 1928, a Scottish bacteriologist returned from his summer holiday to a cluttered laboratory at St Mary's Hospital in London, and noticed something unusual on a petri dish he had left behind. A mould had contaminated one of his cultures of Staphylococcus bacteria — and around the mould, the bacteria were dead. Alexander Fleming did not immediately grasp that he had just made the most important medical discovery of the twentieth century. But he was curious enough to look more carefully, and careful enough not to throw the dish away. That decision would eventually…
Full biography of Alexander Fleming →
Edgar Degas
Edgar Degas was obsessed with movement — the way a dancer's tutu catches the stage light mid-pirouette, the bunched muscle of a racehorse at the starting gate, the tired slump of a laundress pressing a shirt at the end of a long day. He trained his eye like a scientist and his hand like a master draughtsman, then used both to capture modern Paris in moments of arrested motion that feel simultaneously spontaneous and eternally composed. He called himself a Realist. Others called him an Impressionist. He rejected the label but showed in seven of…
Full biography of Edgar Degas →
What they share
- Their lifetimes overlap.
Where they part
- Different fields: Music for Alexander Fleming, Art for Edgar Degas.
- Born in different countries: SCT and France.
- 47 years separate their births (1881 and 1834).
Questions people ask
- Who came first, Alexander Fleming or Edgar Degas?
- Edgar Degas. Alexander Fleming was born in 1881, Edgar Degas in 1834.
- What field is each of them in?
- Alexander Fleming is filed under Music (Musician). Edgar Degas is filed under Art (Painting).
- Were they contemporaries?
- Yes - their lifetimes overlap.