Sketches of a Café Singer

Edgar Degas frequently used his notebooks to record a performance he attended or a person he had observed. Here he quickly produced two sketches of singers at a café-concert. On the left one singer leans forward with her face drawn in sharp profile and her right arm extended. The crooning figure of another singer, her hair flowing behind and her arms reaching out in a pleading gesture, fills the other half of the page. Degas created his figures using swift, abrupt strokes, as if he was impatient to record a posture or expression without sacrificing speed or spontaneity. Areas of definition were reduced to a few slashing lines: a zigzagging pencil line forms the ruffled edge of the singer's bodice, and small wavy lines simulate ringlets at the back of the head.