Three Sketches

Edgar Degas frequently used his notebooks to record a performance he had attended or a person he had observed. Here he quickly produced three sketches of singers at a café-concert. On the left one singer leans forward, with her face drawn in sharp profile. The raised dome of her upswept hair seems to echo the arching line of her back. The broad shoulders and bust of the singer Mademoiselle Dumay, drawn from two angles, fill 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 are reduced to a few slashing lines: a zigzagging pencil forms the ruffled edge of the singer's bodice and small circles create curling ringlets in her hair.