Sketches of Men in Profile

In the evening, after dinner with his friends, Edgar Degas would often pull out his sketchbook to draw. He also passed it around, allowing others to make quick caricatures on its pages. On this sheet, the composer Ernest Reyer seems to have contributed two of the three portraits. Reyer was a friend of Degas, and he appears himself in other drawings in this book. On the left is the profile of the composer Ernest Guiraud, probably by Reyer, with the word Whist inscribed below it. Ludovic Halévy added the inscription E. Guiraud par [Ernest] Reyer (E. Guiraud by Reyer). Another carefully drawn head, probably also by Reyer, occupies the center, drawn when the sheet was vertical. Underneath this figure Halévy wrote L. Halévy/ par Reyer.

The paler sketch at the right, probably by Degas, is of an unidentified man..