Getty Museum

Opera Fan and Ernest Reyer

Creator

French Photographer · 1834–1917

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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Date: about 1877
Medium: Drawing
Culture: French
Department: Drawings
Institution: Getty Museum

Visits to the opera, ballet, and *café-concerts* provided Edgar Degas with entertainment as well as a fertile source of subjects to draw. Here, a large smiling man holds his opera glasses in one hand while over his shoulder peers the composer Ernest Reyer, with a bowed head and a sad expression. Degas outlined the figures using swift, broken lines, reducing the men's suits to a few slashing strokes. He drew over his mistakes, without taking time to erase the end of the sleeve that was started too high or the man's sloping chin that did not project enough at first. Postures and gestures were impatiently recorded in the most emphatic terms, without sacrificing spontaneity. The darker accents of the man's mustache and collar provide deep highlights to the otherwise pale and evenly toned work.

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