Ludovic Lepic at the Theatre

With a swirling cloud of pencil lines, Edgar Degas sketched the artist Ludovic Lepic seated in the front row of a theater. Degas merely suggested the backs of the seats, concentrating on his friend's relaxed position and focused gaze. Still wearing his long overcoat over his dinner jacket, Lepic has thrust his hands deep into his pockets and rests his feet on the edge of the stage in front of him, his sunken eyes fixed on the performance ahead.

Concentrating first on producing a shrewd caricature of Lepic, Degas did not bother to erase surplus lines to create a neat image. Instead, he drew with increasing strength on top of his early strokes until he discovered a form he liked. For example, he redrew Lepic's left shoe several times as he experimented to find the correct angle. In contrast, Lepic's face was hastily but assuredly drawn and needed no corrections. Quick, hatched lines form the man's thinning hair and beard, and one stroke delineates both his rounded nose and eyebrow.