Edgar Degas, Musicians in the Orchestra, an Impressionist despite himself
Musicians in the Orchestra is an oil on canvas painting by Edgar Degas, from 1870, part of the permanent collection of the Legion of Honor Museum of San Francisco. It is an important painting for the Parisian artist as it is most likely what will lead to his famous ballet paintings series, it may also be a study of another painting titled the The Orchestra of the Opera, 1870 at the Orsay Museum of Paris much more colorful and detailed.
Musicians in the Orchestra is interesting as it reveals the intention of the artist, which most likely was to paint an individual portrait of his friend bassoonist Désiré Dihau while the other later painting is a group portrait of the orchestra. The painting is also revealing of Degas’s technique to create movement and intimacy. While Degas was reluctant to be labeled as an impressionist, this painting highlights many of the Impressionists’ achievements in art, notably capturing a moment in time, movement and atmospheric change.
What first comes to mind while studying Musicians in the Orchestra is that it is an unfinished painting, a sketch, a study. Indeed, a sketch is done quickly with black charcoal often on site and to be reworked later. But the overall composition reveals that this may actually have been the intention of the artist to convey speed. It seems that Degas intentionally manipulated the canvas to give the viewer the sensation that he/she is looking at a sketch. The overall painting looks very monochromatic just strokes of black paint on a grey canvas. Grey is often the color of the paper used by sketch artists but is not the natural color of a canvas, which may implies that Degas primed or used a grey underpainting to give the illusion of a sketch paper.
The painting depicts an opera orchestra in which only the bassoonist and contrabassist are discernible to the viewer while the other musicians are dissolved in the darkness of the orchestra pit. The viewer enters the painting through the large black silhouette of the contrabassist on the right foreground of the painting. The large figure is monumental, taking most of the picture plane on the right; his massive back offered to the viewer is as immense and heavy as the instrument itself and is overtaking the rest of the orchestra like a dark shadow. Then appears the much more detailed portrait of the bassoonist Désiré Dihau, friend of Degas on the left foreground. He is the only clear figure in the whole composition and is standing out, almost popping out of the canvas, as he is the only one in focus while everything around him is blurred.
Desiré Dihau is depicted playing the bassoon, his cheeks fully rounded with air blowing into the instrument. His figure is surrounded by a cacophony of black brushstrokes that let the viewer guess the presence of the rest of the orchestra. A simple horizontal line that cuts through the upper end of the canvas suggests a stage in the background.
Impressionists’ main objective was to capture a moment; an instant where everything is about to change, the effect of the light, colors and mood, they wanted to capture the atmospheric effects while painting “en plein air” out of doors. Degas, in Musicians in the Orchestra, is doing the same indoor. The bassoonist’s cheeks are going to deflate, his nostrils are going to flutter, his chest is going to lower. One can sense that the hand of the contrabassist is moving frantically up and down his instrument, as the artist seems to have painted multiple hands, unfinished hands to suggest movement. Heads and bodies are going to move in the typical musician way accompanying the instrument motion and rhythm of the music. Degas also creates movement with an intensive use of diagonals. The viewer can feel the intensity of the brushstrokes, almost frenetic. Degas applies short quick diagonals repeatedly throughout the canvas to suggest the rapid movement of the faceless violinists’ bows. The entire violinists’ figures are reduced to their bows, which is very abstract and very modern for the time. He uses longer diagonals for the Bassoon and contrabass that meet each other in a triangle shape and is echoing the short diagonals of the background and the series of small triangles of the others musicians implied heads. These quick intense diagonals are creating chaos coming from right and left and meeting in picks, almost like a war field after a battle. It is as if Degas wants to depict the chaos of the instruments working together to create the harmony. The large dark silhouette of the contrabassist is also filled with diagonal brushstrokes creating intense movement. Unlike Désiré, his body is not outlined, doesn’t have contours; it is only defined with a light white brushstroke on what could be his face and upper right shoulder suggesting that the light from the stage is fully inundating the front of his body which the viewer is unable to see. The silhouette is a large flat patch of black, almost melting with the background in certain areas, which is very characteristic of the Impressionists and realists. They were influenced by Japanese woodblock prints, which use clear contours and flatten figures. The Japanese print also influences the composition; the main character is off centered and the composition is asymmetric which gives movement, as if the viewer just turned his gaze towards the orchestra and is catching a glimpse of the action. There is also no middleground; the rest of the orchestra is raised and flat.
In this frenzy of movements only Désiré seems stable. The stability effect is created with the triangle shape of his figure, the strong impasto outlined of his body and the details in his face. Only his fingers seem to move, he seems to have two lower hands. His face is beautifully rendered with chiaroscuro light and shadows of red, brown and grey. The strong red of the instrument mouthpiece seems to dissolve into his moustache and lock the man to his instrument.
Impressionists also tended to create proximity with their subject matter. Musicians in the Orchestra is a very participative painting, the viewer feels like he is physically present in the orchestra pit. Degas uses particular techniques to suggest that proximity. First, he crops the figures; the whole lower body of the contrabassist silhouette and the feet of Désiré are in the viewer’s space. Second, he uses colors to pull the viewer in the painting.
The red of the bassoon mouthpiece is inviting the viewer in the painting. Simple pink brushstrokes in the background, which could suggest ballerinas’ legs, (themselves missing their upper bodies) are having a similar effect. The overall blackness of the painting is also making the viewer feel close to the scene as an orchestra of the Opera is always in a dark pit at the feet of the stage. The spotlights from the stage are only brushing the top of the musicians’ heads (implied by the light grey paints coming through in Désiré’s hair). The monumentality of the two figures in the foreground is also making the viewer feel close and part of the scene.
The paint used by Degas is very diluted almost translucent in some places and the under grey paint is coming through. The painting is very monochromatic with the exception of the red mouthpiece and Degas’s own signature as well as the pink ballerinas’a legs.
The paint is becoming much thicker when used on the white collar of the Bassoonist, his shirt and his instrument. The white paint on the long curvy mouthpiece suggests reflection of the light on the metal, the viewer can almost feel the texture of the piece, its hardness and coldness contrasting with the warmth of the rest the instrument made of wood (rendered in warm brown color). There is also a thick application a grey paint right under his mouth, giving the man and his instrument their stature.
Edgar Degas may have opposed to be labeled as an impressionist arguing that unlike his fellow artists he wasn’t spontaneous; however Musicians in the Orchestra shows otherwise; it is giving the viewer that “impression” that sentiment to be right there in the chaos of the pit and fully experiencing the intensity of the moment, the concentration and strength of the musicians and recognizing Désiré’s own personality.
