La chanteuse en vert (c.1884)

Degas, Edgar (1834-1917)

La chanteuse en vert (Singer in Green)
c.1884
Pastel on light blue laid paper, 60.3 x 46.4 cm
Metropolitan Museum of ArtNew York

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. (MET)