Singer with A Glove

Edgar Degas, Singer with a Glove, 1878.

Singer with A Glove by Edgar Degas, originally titled Chanteuse de Café, la chanteuse au gant, is a pastel drawing on canvas 53.2 x 41 cm from the year 1878. Degas himself was a French artist famous for not only pastels, but his paintings, sculptures, prints, and charcoal drawings as well. [1] This pastel is part of a series of works that have cafe-concert singers as their subject. Degas was a habitué of those places, especially the Cafe des Ambassadeurs, and he uses them as the settings for many of his best works. He is drawn to the dramatic poses of performers and singers, especially when presented, as here, from very close up.

Ballet Rehearsal (1873) and The Ballet Class (1874) also depict performers both on stage and in practice. Degas is especially identified with the subject of dance; more than half of his works depict dancers alone. He is regarded as one of the founders of Impressionism, although he rejected the term, and preferred to think of himself as a realist. Singer with A Glove is currently at the Fogg Art Museum, a museum associated with Harvard University along with two other museums and four research centers. At the Fogg museum, they have a permanent exhibition featuring Degas and his works, with near 70 pieces in their collection. The Fogg was the first museum to mount an exhibition of works by Degas, which became a very pivotal moment in his lifetime.[2] At the first initial showing at the Fogg, attendance totaled 550 people, which at the time was considered a success. Singer with A Glove has been present in the Fogg’s collection since 1951.

Composition

In the image Singer with A Glove by Edgar Degas, we first see very bright and very dark colors, contrasting each other starkly. The blackness of the woman's gloved hand is a complete opposite to her pale complexion and pink toned dress. In the background is where we see pops of color, long painterly washes of orange-red, light green, and pale yellow. The entire image maintains the visual of seeing the artist’s hand at work; scribbles of light reflecting white onto the woman’s arm, chest, and face with his pastels. The black around her dress’s neckline and sleeve imply feathers without showing individual feathers or lines. The clearest piece of information in this image is her face, locked in an eternal operatic note. Her eyes are focused on her raised hand with a sad gaze, and her red hair is pulled back into a low bun. If we could hear her sing, I would imagine the song is full of melancholy. The shading on her face continues this implication of a darkness looming over the woman, a dark shadow cast over her eyes and top of her head. Her clothing colors for such a performance can indicate sorrow or anger as well, as the typical glove color for such a time you would imagine to be white, not black. This is the same with soft feathers. Her attire implies wealth, and that she is indeed performing and not just singing in the privacy of her own home. Her hair is perfectly coiffed, she has jewels for earrings, a flower in her hair, and you can tell the dress she is wearing has a bodice. She is either of high class or performing for such people. The background lacks any real information for the viewer, it can be interpreted as a wall, a set for a stage, curtains perhaps. Either way, this woman is certainly among the elite.

Sources

  1. ↑ Thomson, Richard. “Degas in Edinburgh.”
  2. ↑ DeVonyar, Jill. “Degas in New England.”
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