Description
Year of creation: 1878–1879
Original size: 81.5 cm x 100.5 cm
Painting style: Impressionism
Original technique: Oil on canvas
Located: Musée d’Orsay, Paris (inv. RF 2444)
In the corner of the exchange floor stands a bearded man in a top hat and dark coat, looking down at a sheet of paper. From the left a man in a bowler hat leans over his shoulder, his back to us; his hand is raised right beside the other’s collar and he speaks into his ear.
On the right a man in a top hat holds a white slip in front of his face, and behind him, at the edge, another top-hatted figure appears. In the background at the left men stand by a pale pillar with a notice posted on it. The floor is grey, with white papers scattered across it.
The commission came from the banker Ernest May, who collected the work of Degas. The paint is laid on thin and fast, large areas of the coats stay almost unworked; the whole scene happens in an exchange of whispered words, not in a look.
Our version is a hand-painted oil painting on canvas. Every canvas is painted individually, in the size and frame you choose.
