At the Theatre or Au café-concert, ca. 1878

Edouard Manet

1832 – Paris – 1883

Black chalk. Size of sheet: 18.5 x 27.2 cm. Signed.

Literature: Ingres & Delacroix through Degas & Puvis de chavannes. The Figure in French Art. 1800 - 1880, Shepherd Gallery. New York 1975, p. 307, cat. no. 130. Ill. (lent by Daniels) Ann Dumas, Colta Ives, Susan A. Stein, Gary Tinterow, The Private Collection of Edgar Degas, New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art , 1997, p. 188, ill. 264. Juliet Wilson-Bareau. Malcolm Park. Manet trifft Manet. Sammlung Oskar Reinhart, Winterthur, 2005, cat. no. 45, ill.

Provenance: Alphonse Dumas, ca. 1884; Edgar Degas (Vente. Collection Degas, 1918, cat. no. 229); Este. Gallery, New York; David Daniels, 1957;

Exhibition: Fogg Art Museum, 1957; Philadelphia Museum of Art; Minneapolis Art Institute; Boston Museum of Art, 1962; Gallery of Modern Art, New York, 1965; Fogg Art Museum, 1980; Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1997; Fuchu Art Museum, Tokio, 2001; Sammlung Oskar Reinhart, Winterthur, 2005

Our representation of a concert audience was most likely a preparatory drawing for the paintings Au Café (National Gallery, London) and Coin de café-concert (Sammlung Oskar Reinhart, Winterthur). Both pictures were part of a composition that Manet called Café Reichshoffen and that he divided into two separate canvasses shortly after completion.

The origin of these paintings, although known to Manet's contemporaries to some extent, was soon forgotten and has only recently been outlined by Juliet Wilson-Bareau and Malcolm Park (Juliet Wilson-Bareau, Malcolm Park, Manet trifft Manet, Sammlung Oskar Reinhart, Winterthur 2005).

The painting Café Reichshoffen is based on a number of preparatory studies. Among them is a drawing in the same technique as ours, entitled Café-concert (Musée du Louvre, département des arts graphiques, fond du musée d'Orsay, Paris. RF 30.526). The study for a female head in the bottom row on the right is based on the same model as the second listener on the left in our drawing. Both drawings were probably made on the same day in situ at Café Reichshoffen.

After dividing the canvas, Manet completed the pictures separately for exhibition in his one-man show at the gallery of the fashion magazine La vie modern; the exhibition opened on 8 April 1880. The catalogue consisted of a folded sheet, with the frontispiece representation based on an authography which was itself based on our drawing. The latter can also be found in a contemporary photograph of the Manet exhibition Exposition des oeuvres de Êdourd Manet of 1884. All exhibits had been loaned from the collection of the art dealer Alphonse Dumas, who also owned the important watercolour by Manet of Olympia.

This drawing was once owned by Degas, alongside a number of other prints, drawings and paintings by Manet. Together, they provide 'an intimate glimpse into his personal relationship' with the artist colleague. (see Kalaman and Wilson-Bareau in 'Manet and Degas: A Neverending Dialogue' in: Ann Dumas, Colta Ives, Susan A. Stein, Gary Tinterow, The private collection of Edgar Degas. New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1997, p. 177.)

Bought by a private collector, Northern America.