Degas was likely influenced to collaborate with the lithographer Thornley by Theo Van Gogh, the influential director of the Boussod-Valadon Gallery in Paris  and the brother of Vincent, and as a result of Thornley's masterful lithographic interpretations of drawings by Puvis de Chavannes. By 1888, Degas and Thornley were working together to produce a portfolio of 15 lithographs based on drawings by Degas. The portfolio was issued in 1889 in an edition of 100, plus an additional deluxe edition of 25 with each of the prints signed by both artists. Reed/Shapiro p. lvii.

Barbara Shapiro records, "Degas is known to have taken an active part in the making of reproductive prints after his paintings. For instance, he was committed to the work of the lithographer Georges-William Thornley, with whom he corresponded. In an undated letter to Thornley, Degas indicated his desire to make some changes to the drawing on the transfer paper by Thornley." (Reed and Shapiro: Edgar Degas: The Painter as Printmaker, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1984, p.25)

In this picture, a bright fiery glow shines upward from the stage lights of a Parisian café, magically illuminating famous nineteenth century performer Theresa Valadon, the reigning queen of the café concert. Her profile is placed strongly against a pillar which cuts the composition, and contrasts the face, lighted drastically by footlights, with a repeated pattern of electric globes - devices which show that by this time he was absorbing the patterns of Japanese art.  Degas had a particular interest in theatrical performers and "Subjects inspired by the café-concert, principally singers in performance, appeared rather suddenly in Degas' work…In a letter of 1883 to the painter Henry Lerolle, Degas called her voice 'the most natural, the most delicate, and the most vibrantly tender' instrument imaginable." (Jean Sutherland Boggs). 

But in some of these café works, as here, the artist seems to have been struck by the vigorous vulgarity of the performer and unlike the charm with which he rendered his first ballet dancers, these works are often sharply satirical. As Mrs. Havemeyer, who bought the picture from Degas, wrote, "There is nothing elegant about this woman's pose. Her hands suggest the movement of a dog (from a popular song of the period) and the gesture is done as only Degas could do it with a flash of drawing. The lines of the mouth, as she bawls forth the vulgar song, her exultant exaggeration, showing she is conscious of her power over her audience, all this and much more . . . show clearly what the cafe-chantant is, what part it plays in Parisian life, the kind of creature that furnishes the amusement, and, although you cannot see them distinctly, you know the class of pleasure seekers who can be entertained by such a performance." 

References: Boggs, Jean Sutherland, Degas, Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY, 1989, painting listed as cat. no. 175 on page 291; Shapiro, Barbara Stern and Sue Welsh Reed, Edgar Degas, The Painter as Printmaker, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1984, listed as cat. no. 25b on page 77.