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
Edgar Degas frequently used his notebooks to record a performance he attended or a person he had observed. Here he quickly produced two sketches of singers at a *café-concert* . On the left one singer leans forward with her face drawn in sharp profile and her right arm extended. The crooning figure of another singer, her hair flowing behind and her arms reaching out in a pleading gesture, fills the other half of the page. Degas created his figures using swift, abrupt strokes, as if he was impatient to record a posture or expression without sacrificing speed or spontaneity. Areas of definition were reduced to a few slashing lines: a zigzagging pencil line forms the ruffled edge of the singer's bodice, and small wavy lines simulate ringlets at the back of the head.
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.