Sketches of a Café Singer

During the year that he took to fill this sketchbook, Edgar Degas became fascinated with the singers who gave concerts in the cafés that he visited, filling numerous pages with images of them. Here he experimented by showing the robust curves of different café singers from various angles. On the left one singer gestures emotionally. Hastily drawn parallel lines suggest the folds of her dress as it puddles on the floor around her feet and bunches at her hips. The singer on the right opens her mouth in full song. A smudge across her face casts it into shadow and makes the rest of her body appear in brilliant relief.