| Café Chantant images in Degas art:
The most accurate evidence of the Café Chantants belong to the brush of Edgar Degas, an aristocrat and frequent visitor of the elegant salons of Parc Monceau, who was ahead of Toulouse-Lautrec by an entire decade. During the last quarter of the 19th century, before the appearance of cinematography, the Café Chantants remained the favorite recreation destination of Parisians. These places were very different and were found everywhere, like movie theaters during our days: in Montmartre, Strasbourg Boulevard, Champs Elysees and in the suburbs. The most attractive were, of course, the ones that were opened in summer, in the open air, in gardens, illuminated with white gas balls.
Degas, who did not like open places, preferred artificial lighting and gas illumination helped him find new solutions. To his fellow Impressionists, he said: "You need a natural life, I prefer - artificial". However, scenes from life in Café Chantants on his canvases satisfied the first task, posed by Impressionists before him - to reflect modernity. The democracy, and to some extent, some vulgarity of Café Chantants attracted him. Such an atmosphere amused and entertained Degas. Extraordinary individuals met there: ventriloquists, eccentrics, patriots, peasants, sentimental ladies, epileptics. Prototypes of such people still exist and if you think about it, any modern pop star can be attributed to one of these categories. Degas had no preferences; he willingly attended both elegant establishments on Champs Elysees, La Scala, Ba-ta-Clan, Elysees Montmartre as well ambiguous Belleville pubs and La Villette, where he was attracted by unusual silhouettes.
In his personal life, Degas was both restrained and hot-tempered, at times, fits of anger, as a rule, were caused by a fear of losing his independence. Small, in a round wide-brimmed hat, with derisive bad eyesight, who cannot stand noise, despising fuss, Degas was an aristocrat by birth and in spirit, that this did not stop him from becoming one of the most democratic artists of his time. Friends and members of his own family spoke about Degas as an awkward straight man. And indeed, one fondly called him a "teddy bear" for his frequent grumbling. The relationship of Degas with his own body was free from conventions. In fact, the bath tub, which we often see in his many later paintings of bathing women, was boldly kept in the middle of his workshop. He was also known as great mimic or clown, the poet Paul Valery explained that this was the Italian origins of the artist.
Evidence of the aspiration for physical closeness by Degas towards ballet dancers or any of his nudes, however, like any other information about private life was not preserved. Nobody knew whether Degas had a mistress. Degas himself never talked about his relationships with women and some investigators conclude from this that Degas was a voyeur, i.e. he got pleasure not through sex but looking at the female body. But such a conclusion also does not have any evidence and cannot be considered valid. It is just an assumption, one of many assumptions, permissible in this case. With the same success, it can be assumed that Degas had a regular sex life with prostitutes. This is also a logical assumption, since these women were not interested in art and did not know who Degas was. Consequently, their ignorance allowed Degas to keep his personal life a secret, which is consistent with his closed nature and fear of becoming the subject of gossip and banter. This assumption is more likely, that Degas often spoke in his youth that he wanted to become famous and unknown, i.e. to get fame and money and at the same time not suffer the annoying attention of others. The world of prostitutes just fitted the role of this environment, in which Degas could be unknown, but use all the benefits of his financial position. However, this also is an assumption. |
Caricatures are very popular nowadays (even at FN!). However first caricatures go back as far as the origin of art itself. Leonardo da Vinci drew many 
