Singer at a Café-Concert

Singer at a Café-Concert by Edgar Degas French, 1834-1917, is a significant lithograph executed between 1876 and 1877. This powerful image, rendered solely in black ink on off-white wove paper, showcases Degas’s profound mastery of the print medium. Unlike many of his studies in oil or pastel, this lithograph emphasizes dramatic shadow and rich texture, essential elements in capturing the harsh, smoky atmosphere of the Parisian entertainment venues he frequently documented.

As a key figure associated with the Impressionist movement, Degas often diverged from traditional subjects to focus instead on capturing the fleeting moments of modern life in 19th-century France. The café-concert, or café-chantant, was a particularly popular setting for the artist, providing rich material for exploring artificial light sources and unconventional compositional arrangements. In this scene, Degas positions the viewer obliquely, mimicking the candid quality of a snapshot and enhancing the sense of immediacy. The work focuses intensely on the performer, whose presence is strongly suggested through sharp contrasts between light and shadow rather than crisp delineation, a technique influenced by contemporary photography and Japanese prints.

This print exemplifies Degas’s innovative approach to graphic arts. While the artist is more celebrated for his work in pastel and oil, he created a relatively small corpus of lithographs and etchings, making this piece a vital example of his experiments within the classification of fine art prints. The work resides in the permanent collection of the Art Institute of Chicago, contributing to the museum’s extensive holdings of 19th-century French art.