In most of his works that take the theatre for subject, Daumier concentrated on portraying the attitudes and facial expressions of the common people in the galleries rather than the more elegant public of the boxes and the orchestra seats.
However, he was perfectly capable of depicting the elegant society that Constantin Guys treated at the same period. Here we see “society ladies with hard profiles, already stamped by age, and seated in front of them a young woman or girl whose face is seen in one-quarter view. Her slightly languorous posture is infinitely graceful.
The assurance and at the same time lightness of the line, the iridescent effect of the colours make this watercolour the equal of Fragonard’s most attractive sketches.

1860-1965