Getty Museum
Sketches of a Café Singer
Creator
Edgar DegasFrench Photographer · 1834–1917
All works by this person →> No art was ever less spontaneous than mine. What I do is the result of reflection and study of the great masters; of inspiration, spontaneity, temperament . . . I know nothing. > > --Edgar Germaine Hilaire Degas From a wealthy Parisian family, Degas devoted himself exclusively to painting without needing to sell a canvas. His training was conventional: he spent five years in Italy, studied the O
More on Getty ULAN- Date
- about 1877
- Medium
- Drawing
- Culture
- French
- Department
- Drawings
- Institution
- Getty Museum
In the 1800s, when people depended on gaslight to light their homes, many artists put down their brushes at dusk and spent the late afternoon and evening in the many cafés around Paris. They gathered around marble-topped tables to discuss ideas with their friends or to watch the singers who arrived later to entertain them. One evening Edgar Degas quickly drew three sketches of a café singer. At the left she crosses her arms at her waist, her head and legs left incomplete. In the center she bows to the right, grasping her skirt with her gloved hand; on the right she gestures at an invisible audience. Degas's quick pencil lines captured the fleshy width of her arms and chest and her simple upswept hair. Only a single zigzagging line forms the ruffled edge of her low-cut gown. Using swift, interrupted strokes, he only bothered to outline the figures, as if impatient to record each of the postures and gestures.
The authoritative record is held by Getty Museum. LinkedCulture surfaces this object and its connections; it does not alter institutional metadata.
Get printable QR codesHide QR codes
Open QR codes for this object page and the museum record. They stay collapsed until needed.
Related across collections
Semantically similar works from Getty Museum and other institutions.