On the cover: About Degas's L'Orchestre de l'Opera
Helene Couturier
(The following article first appeared in the Bulletin #9 -
March, 1983, issue of Le Basson, Bulletin de I'Assosicaion
Les Amis do Basson Francais. This translation by Philip Gottling
of Paris is with the kind permission of the author. Ed.)
The painter Edgar Degas, a music lover and balletomane, was a regular at the Paris Opera. Raised in a family that appreciated music, he maintained his interest in music all his life, and a large number of his portraits represent his musician friends. His father, in fact, organized chamber music parties every Monday, during which Degas painted several portraits.
Being passionate about music, Degas had a subscription to the opera and a seat in the front row, and spent a good number of his evenings in the wings. He thus met composers and musicians, especially Desire Dihau, with whom he became close friends.
Desire-Hippolyte Dihau, a bassoonist in the orchestra of the Paris Opera, was born in Lille on August 2, 1833, but lived in Paris until his death on August 20, 1909. Degas and Dihau both lived in Montmartre, the artistic quarter of Paris. When the opera was over, they would travel home together and spend their small change on roasted chestnuts. They would also eat breakfast together in a small restaurant on the rue de la Tour-d'Auvergne run by Mother Lefebvre, a restaurant to which Bonnat introduced Degas and where artists, musicians, and others (Souquet, Piot Normand, and Pillat, for example) boarded.
Degas had a project to paint a portrait of his friend Desire Dihau. When he started out, he planned to paint Dihau by himself, playing the bassoon. In fact, Degas always represented his subjects in their usual postures. "Paint portraits of people in their familiar and typical poses; above all give to their faces the same range of expression that one gives to their bodies, " wrote Degas in his journal of 1869. Degas, however, expanded his idea and depicted a whole area of the opera house.
" L'Orchestre de l'Opera, " dating from 1868, is a painting audaciously composed on two horizontal planes which meet at the upper left-hand corner, where Emmanuel Chabrier can be seen in his box. Around Dihau, Degas brought together in the pit various friends, amateur musicians, Opera orchestra members, and non-musicians. He wanted to create more than anything an extraordinary collection of portraits.
At the top towards the apron sits Chabrier,
then from left to right can be seen: Pillet, a 'cellist; Gard,
choreographer of the Opera (translator's note: it is not clear
which one of the next two he is); Plot Normand, a painter that
Degas represented as a violinist; Souquet, Degas' friend; Pillat,
a medical student; Dihau; Altes, a flutist who later became the
conductor of the Opera; Lancien, the concertmaster; Gout, another
violinist; and Gouffe, a bassist, shown in a resting position
as if he is waiting for his next entrance, his back towards the
audience. " L'Orchestre de l'Opera"
is above all a portrait of Desire Dihau.
All of the subjects are turned towards the right in the direction of the unseen conductor. Each of these portraits, while keeping its own individuality, becomes a part of the overall composition. Degas reproduced the players' postures with scientific precision. Wouldn't one think it necessary to be both a bassoonist and an artist to convey (as Degas has done, and as if he has done nothing else in his life) the full cheeks and furrowed brow of Desire Dihau, who blows into the brass bocal of his instrument with agility and flying fingers, opening and closing keys the entire length of the bassoon?
The orchestra takes up three-quarters of' the picture, the rest belonging to a corner of the stage where one can see the movements of a group of dancers. The painter's observation post is in the first row. The perspective is such that the footlights hide the lower legs of the dancers and their heads are invisible, the edge of the canvas at the level of their shoulders. Degas has framed the painting arbitrarily in a way that is almost photographic.
As for the look of "L'Orchestre de l'Opera," one could wonder if the group of ballerinas were not added as an afterthought. They are painted with quick, light brushstrokes: that is one clue, and under the tulle of a ballet costume the lines of some woodwork show through, a bit of architectural detail leading one to believe that Degas had finished his work completely before adding the dancers to it. There had been only an empty corner of the stage above the orchestra musicians.
Never had an artist better expressed the poetry of the theater: the poetry of the scenery, of the lighting ("the provocative thing is not showing the source of the light all the time, but rather the effect of the light, " wrote Degas), the dream, the distant, the unattainable.
"L'Orchestre de l'Opera" is one of the most perfect tableaux of Degas, down to the fine, smooth oil paints he used. Degas' father was very proud of this work and thanked Desire Dihau, saying to him that, thanks to Dihau, the younger Degas had completed his best painting, and one of the few that he had pushed to the limit.
Toulouse-Lautrec, who also knew the Dihaus, was a fervent admirer of this canvas, and went often to contemplate it at Desire Dihau's house on rue Frochot. Toulouse-Lautrec also did a portrait of Dihau, and worked with him. In fact, in 1895, the music editor Batlau published a series of melodies by Dihau, based on the poetry of Jean Richepin. Toulous- Lautrec illustrated the covers.
"L'Orchestre de I'Opera" is on display at the Musee du Jeu de Paume in Paris.