Brothel Scene

Getty Museum

Brothel Scene

Creator

Edgar Degas

French Photographer · 1834–1917

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Artist

> 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

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Object Description · Getty Museum

When Edmond de Goncourt's novel *La Fille Elisa* (The Girl Elisa) was published in March 1877, the tragic story of a girl who becomes a prostitute quickly caught Edgar Degas's attention. Months later, he sketched several scenes from the book in his notebook, focusing on the episodes when the prostitute is with her soldier lover. Here the drunken pair have fallen asleep at a table with an empty wine bottle between them. Using hasty, seemingly careless strokes, Degas outlined the figures and their surroundings with a few slashing lines. The woman's slumped posture and her companion's open-mouthed sleep are both recorded in the most emphatic terms, without sacrificing either swiftness or spontaneity. Simply by smudging the pencil lines with his finger, Degas also created darker accents such as the shadows under the table, the crease of the prostitute's shoulder blades, and her black hair. This effect dissolves the body's contours and emphasizes the woman's dark form in contrast to the soldier's pale, empty figure in the background.

Getty Museum’s catalogue record

produced_by.carried_out_by[0].id
https://data.getty.edu/museum/collection/person/8b37c957-95e3-4a45-b819-50e0bcc226d8
Artist/Maker
Edgar Degas
subject_of[Homepage].id
https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/object/108E1D
Date
about 1877
Medium
Pencil, on blue paper
Culture
French
Object Type
Drawing

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Object ID
e9cd0d79-68d0-4cd9-9ab0-8a869885f3af
Object Type
Drawing
  • Getty Museum field “Object Type” · copied as is
Creator
Edgar Degas
  • Getty Museum field “Artist/Maker” · copied as is
Culture
French
  • Getty Museum field “Culture” · copied as is
Medium
Pencil, on blue paper
  • Getty Museum field “Medium” · copied as is
Department
Drawings
  • Getty Museum field “Department” · derived by LinkedCulture from the museum field · Getty's classification category is stored as department.
Credit Line
The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
  • Getty Museum field “Standard Credit Line” · the first available of several museum fields
  • Getty Museum field “Source Credit Line” · the first available of several museum fields
Date
about 1877
  • Getty Museum field “Date” · copied as is
Begin Year
1877
  • Getty Museum field “produced_by.timespan.begin_of_the_begin” · derived by LinkedCulture from the museum field
End Year
1877
  • Getty Museum field “produced_by.timespan.end_of_the_end” · derived by LinkedCulture from the museum field

The museum’s own record has not been captured for this object yet, so the museum fields shown above are limited to values LinkedCulture stored unchanged.

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