Au Théâtre

Jean-Louis Forain (French, 1852-1931): Au Théâtre, 1882 (Watercolor, pen and brown ink and black traces of graphite on paper) Here Forain captures a moment of contemporary life: a way of being, exchanging looks, and leaning slightly to catch what another person is saying about the show they have both just seen… To give the scene immediacy for the spectator, the four characters in the foreground are shown from the waist up and a female figure in the foreground is seen from behind. Forain owes his taste for this almost photographic framing to Degas…