Café-Concert

Edgar Degas

National Gallery of Art

Six women wearing off-the-shoulder gowns with long skirts sit in front of a stage where several men play instruments in this horizontal pastel drawing. They all have pale skin and brown or black hair. Across the stage from us, the women’s gowns are petal pink, crimson red, butter yellow, baby or azure blue, or black, and they all wear black chokers around their necks. Their hair is swept up and tied with bows or ornaments to match their dresses. One woman holds a bouquet of flowers in her lap and two more hold fans, one open and one closed, to their mouths. Three women in the front row sit closely together and others turn or stand. The walls and possibly curtains of this space are luminous yellow, and a green palm-like tree is at the back of the room. The woman wearing black stands directly in front of the stage, one hand lifted and the other clasping her skirts as she leans toward the musicians. Her mouth is open, and she is harshly up-lit by the stage lights. Three men facing her hold a violin, upright bass, and perhaps a viola. Three more men closer to us face away so we only see the brown hair of one, the black top hat of another, and the straw-yellow bowler hat of the third. The stage space is enclosed opposite us with a wall streaked with kelly green, peacock blue, and charcoal gray. A three-lobed brass-colored light hangs or is affixed to the wall there. The artist signed the lower left, “Degas.”