Café Concert Rehearsal Gm-13371201

Edgar Degas (French, 1834–1917) In a quick sketch of a rehearsing singer, Edgar Degas managed to give the scene an air of comic menace, suggesting a slight undercurrent of tension by both the placement on the page and the figures' specific gestures. Towering over the much smaller male figure, the singer fills the center of the page as she advances forward, eyes focused on her prey, who is pushed into the corner of the page. Slumped deep into his armchair, the man's position could suggest either complete relaxation or abject fear; his head tilts back, his arms grip the armrests of the chair, and his legs sprawl out in front.

Degas was fascinated by the countless gestures that revealed his subjects' social class and work. He made art from modern subjects that only genre painters had fully used before: the tension between a man and a woman and the suggestion of violence and domination in a relationship.