The singer in green

Degas, Edgar (1834-1917)


Item type:
drawing
Date of creation:
ca. 1884
Height:
60.3 cm  (23 3/4 in.)
Width:
46.4 cm  (18 1/4 in.)
Technique / Medium:
pastel on paper
School:
French

    Item location

  • Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York)
    [Museum inv. no.: 61.101.7]

Description

From the Met website: A sale catalogue of 1898 evocatively described the performer pictured in this pastel: "Skinny and with the graceful moves of a little monkey, she has just sung her ribald verses and, with a gesture that conceals an entreaty behind her smile, is inviting applause." With her small eyes, high cheeks, and low brow, the model recalls Marie von Goethem, the working-class girl who posed for Degas’s sculpture The Little Fourteen-Year-Old Dancer. The singer’s dress, rendered in vivid yellow, turquoise, and orange, reflects the artist’s experimentation with saturated hues and color contrasts in the mid-1880s.

Iconclass

48C75512
female singer

RIdIM images


Image URLs

image link 1

RIdIM record id

3839