He was the bassoonist painted by Edgar Degas in The Orchestra at the Opera (L'Orchestre de l'Opéra [fr]) with the cellist Louis-Marie Pilet seated behind him.

[2] He is best known for being the bassoonist of the Paris Opera, where he played from July 1, 1862, to December 31, 1889, immortalized by Edgar Degas in the 1870 painting, L'Orchestre de l'Opéra [fr],[2] preceded by a sketch kept at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.

Degas probably met Dihau at the Mère Lefebvre, rue de La Tour-d'Auvergne [fr] in Montmartre where artists and musicians gathered.

[5] For the cover of the Vieilles Histoires, subtitled "répertoire mondain", a collection of poems by Jean Goudezki [fr] set in music by Désiré Dihau and published by Ondet in 1893, Lautrec drew a lithograph representing the musician, his bassoon under his arm, pulling the bear Goudezki by the leash to lead him to the Institut de France via the pont des Arts.

[6] The plate titled Pour toi!, in the same collection, is a portrait of Désiré Dihau inspired by L'Orchestre de l'Opéra by Edgar Degas which Lautrec much admired.