Getty Museum
Brothel Scene
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
A large, untidy woman reclines on a long bench, holding a glass in one hand. The mirror behind her reflects the back of her tousled head. Only the head and shoulders of her companion are visible as he gazes deeply into her eyes from the side of the scene. In this sharp caricature of a prostitute and her soldier, Edgar Degas captured with a few quick strokes the whore's deep appraising look as she sizes up her client. A few impatient lines characterize the broad, fleshy width of her shoulders and arms, the edge of her exposed breast, and her wrinkled dress. Edmond de Goncourt's novel *La Fille Elisa* (The Girl Elisa) was published in March 1877 and quickly caught Degas's attention. In the same year Degas sketched several drawings based on its events in his notebook. The book tells the tragic story of a girl who becomes a prostitute, first in the country and then in a poor quarter of Paris near the École Militaire. She falls in love with a soldier but finally murders him in a rage.
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