Mlle Bécat at the Café des Ambassadeurs 1875 - 1878

Edgar Degas made this print of Mlle Bécat at the Café des Ambassadeurs using etching and aquatint. The Café des Ambassadeurs was an important site of popular entertainment in Paris. It was located on the Champs-Élysées, where wealthy and working-class Parisians mixed. The print illustrates the interconnectedness of cultural institutions, social life, and artistic production in late 19th-century Paris. Degas shows the singer, Mlle Bécat, perched above the orchestra pit, ready to perform. We can see how printmakers like Degas used images of popular culture to generate revenue. Historical sources, such as newspapers, playbills, and admission records, allow historians to study the commercialization of leisure and entertainment at this time. With research, we can understand how artists like Degas participated in the creation and critique of Parisian social life.