This sheet is one of very few known impressions of Manet’s gillotage of a scene in the Café Guerbois, a Parisian establishment frequented by artists and writers. Gillotage was a new photomechanical process capable of conveying painterly effects. 

Depicted from the vantage point of a seat in the balcony of a theater, two dancers execute rapid jumps in unison while a third kneels in a dramatic pose. To produce this monotype, Degas covered a metal plate entirely with black ink and used a cloth and his fingertips selectively to wipe ink away. He then pressed the plate onto paper and gave the unique impression to his friend Alphonse Cherfils, as indicated by the inscription. 

In this drawing, made in front of the Louvre’s terracotta Sarcophagus of the Spouses from the sixth century  b.c.e., Degas records the work in its gallery surroundings, taking careful note of the reflections of light on the glass case. In an etched composition he developed from the drawing, Degas included the American artist Mary Cassatt, standing and looking in, and her sister, Lydia, seated and consulting a book.