Detail of The Singer by Degas Metropolitan Museum of Art, December 2023

Title: The Singer

Artist: Edgar Degas (French, Paris 1834–1917 Paris)

Date: ca. 1877–78

Culture: French

Medium: Pastel over monotype

Dimensions: 6 1/4 × 4 1/2 in. (15.9 × 11.4 cm)
Framed: 17 × 14 5/8 × 1 1/4 in. (43.2 × 37.1 × 3.2 cm)

Classification: Drawings

Credit Line: Reading Public Museum, Reading, Pennsylvania. Gift, Miss Martha Elizabeth Dick Estate (1976.46.1)


Although the singer’s identity is unknown, the gaslight globes and fluted columns—visible in the lithograph featuring Mademoiselle Bécat, also on view in this gallery—locate this scene at the popular Café des Ambassadeurs. As with many of his works devoted to café-concert subjects, Degas began with a monotype, a drawing made in greasy ink and transferred from a plate, over which he applied pastel. The powdery pigments enhance the effects of the harsh lighting and vibrating energy at the crowded outdoor venue.

Text from: www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/858006