Mother and Child

Best known for his posters, caricatures, and satires, Henri Gabriel Ibels also made designs for theater and, particularly relevant to this drawing, sheet music. The pastel could relate to his sheet music cover for The Song of the Spinning Wheel (La Chanson du Rouet). The lyrics give voice to a woman considering her future as a mother, but were written to be performed by a man—almost certainly in a tone of mockery. The song was published in 1892, thus suggesting an approximate date for the pastel.