Two Sketches

Edgar Degas

about 1877

Graphite

J. Paul Getty Museum

Two sketches of figures in motion. On the left, a standing woman with arms crossed and head tilted back. On the right, a crouching figure leans towards a figure lying down. Focusing on the performer's expression and gestures, Edgar Degas quickly captured a café singer absorbed in her song. Two black lines form her closed eyes, a small oval serves as her nose, and a circle is her mouth. With a quick flurry of strokes, her dress puddles around her feet, while an irregular zigzagging line forms the ruffled edge of her bodice. On the right, another singer makes a deep curtsy toward the upturned face of a male spectator. As a youth, Degas was instructed by his teacher Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres to "use lines, young man, many lines, both to remember as well as to copy nature." Quick sketches such as these