# Conversation: Ludovic Halévy and Madame Cardinal (The Conversation) for "La Famille Cardinal" by Ludovic Halévy

**Edgar Degas** (French, 1834–1917)  
c. 1880–83  
monotype  
Platemark: 21.3 x 16 cm (8 3/8 x 6 5/16 in.); Sheet: 25.5 x 17.8 cm (10 1/16 x 7 in.)

Courtesy of the Cleveland Museum of Art, 1967.167. [The museum's record](https://clevelandart.org/art/1967.167).

## About this work

This print comes from a series of more than 30 monotypes that Degas planned as illustrations for La Famille Cardinal by the artist’s friend Ludovic Halévy. The satirical stories revolve around two young dancers at the Opéra, Pauline and Virginie Cardinal, and their procuress mother. In late 19th-century Paris, the ballet was the profession of lower-class girls and young women who were available for sexual hire. Here, in the opening scene, Halévy, the first-person narrator, meets with Madame Cardinal in the coulisses (wings) of the Opéra to arrange for a private rendezvous with one of her daughters. The dancers, whose sexual availability is the subtext of the composition, are conspicuously absent.

_Text from the Cleveland Museum of Art._

Edgar Degas made this in about 1880–83, aged about 46. It is now at the Cleveland Museum of Art.

### [Edgar Degas](https://www.ochreeditions.com/artists/edgar-degas)

French, 1834–1917; born in Paris; died in Paris

Degas trained in the academic tradition, admired Ingres and spent three years in Italy copying earlier art, but turned to modern Paris for his subjects: dancers, racecourses, laundresses, milliners and café singers. He helped organise the Impressionist exhibitions and showed in all but one, yet preferred to call himself a realist. Working from drawing and memory rather than outdoors, he composed with unexpected cropping and viewpoints, and in later years worked mostly in pastel as his eyesight failed.

_Written by Ochre Editions._

## Facts

- Type: Print
- Culture: France, 19th century
- The artist was about 46
- Real size: about 8½ × 6½ in (21 × 16 cm). The original is small: even the 8 × 10 in print shows it larger than life.
- Century: 19th century
- Movement: [Impressionism](https://www.ochreeditions.com/movements/impressionism)
- Colour: grey
- Rights: public domain (CC0 1.0); free to use for any purpose.

## Get it

- Free download, full resolution: https://img.ochreeditions.com/m/664.jpg?dl=1
- Image: https://img.ochreeditions.com/a/664/1920.jpg
- Giclée reproduction on Hahnemühle Photo Rag: 8 × 10 in $28; 11 × 14 in $38; 12 × 16 in $42; 16 × 20 in $56; 18 × 24 in $68
- Framed reproduction: 8 × 10 in $78; 11 × 14 in $98; 12 × 16 in $108; 16 × 20 in $138; 18 × 24 in $164
- Canvas reproduction: 8 × 10 in $58; 11 × 14 in $72; 12 × 16 in $79; 16 × 20 in $98
- Print-ready file: 8 × 10 in $2; 11 × 14 in $2; 12 × 16 in $3; 16 × 20 in $3; 18 × 24 in $3

Sizes stop where the museum's file would print below 150 pixels per inch. Everything sold is a reproduction, made to order. [Order a print](https://www.ochreeditions.com/art/conversation-ludovic-halevy-and-madame-cardinal-the-conversa-cma-143203).