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Cafes were born in the century of the Enlightenment. In Paris, “the salons of intelligence and the twin assets of social and intellectual distinction. Wine (still or sparking champagne, Tokay or Rhine valley wine) is rarely drunk here.” Cafes were not depicted by master painters, most of whom still had little interest in genre scenes. From the second half of the 19th century, cafes became more democratic and, under many different names (cabaret, wine merchant, mastroquet), attracted people from every social and professional rank. Anyone could be found in this type of space. A place of light, warmth and sociability, the cafe became a social melting-pot. Between the cafe walls, ‘people’ could talk, play, drink and smoke, usually in a kind of sociable anonymity.

 

1. Cafes and cafes concerts became a central point of urban life. Once more, it was Haussmann’s Paris which gave them this importance, as the large pavements of the boulevards, glowing under gaslights at night, allowed cafés and restaurants to flourish. In his Women on the Terrace of a Cafe in the Evening (Femmes à la terrasse d’un café le soir), Degas portrays “prostitutes, wilted, faded creatures who, sweating vice, cynically go over the events of the day” (Georges Rivière). 

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4. For many customers, cafés provided a substitute family and a way of killing time, like the drunken woman asleep on her neighbor's shoulder in At Cafe Le Bouchon by Edouard Manet, himself a regular of all sorts of Paris cafés.

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8. On the 23rd October 1888, Paul Gauguin arrived at Van Gogh’s home in Arles. Night Café at Arles, Madame Ginoux is one of Gaugin’s personal interpretations of Van Gogh’s work. We see none of the desolation apparent in Van Gogh’s version of the scene. The anonymous visitors seem to shrink behind the imposing figure of Madame Ginoux. Gaugin only dealt with the hidden side of life, preferring to paint in a way that appealed to the imagination as he also demonstrates in Grape Harvest at Arles (or Human Anguish). Paul Gaugin shows us “this [very] café that Vincent likes a lot and I somewhat less. I like it when others are there, but I still feel apprehensive. It’s a question of education and such things cannot be undone.” While Gaugin’s painting fails to show the same uninhibited expressionism as that of Van Gogh, it portrays a person sleeping and prostitutes, both typical customers of all-night cafés.

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9. Dining scenes were a recurrent theme for the artists of the so-called ‘Belle Époque’. All appear to have turned their hand to cafe or restaurant scenes. Whether joyful or miserable, provocative or tipsy, full or hungry: all such slices of life have been dealt with in creative ways. Most striking among these seated couples is their air of solitude. They may be together physically, but their eyes never meet; each is in his or her own world, where the other counts for nothing or – at most – only for what they stand to benefit their partner. Here, two stories play out silently; the empty space between the tables creates a frontier. To the left, a fat, lascivious-looking man, replete from his meal, waits for his bill; to the right, the thin and hungry-looking ‘lorette’ (cheap woman) half-heartedly waits for someone to invite her to dinner. (Editor’s note: perhaps she is glowering at her neighbour)... ‘Le Riche’ was a large Boulevard cafe-restaurant. Men and women of letters, journalists and editors, painters and musicians – all sorts of bright young things frequented such places. If their evening gatherings ever took a risqué turn, there were small private salons upstairs” (Source: Beaussant Lefèvre auction catalogue).

 

11-12. These Cezanne’s figures give the impression of balance and tranquillity.

 

13-14. In Paul Cezanne’s The Card Players, to be found in the Musée d'Orsay and also in Qatar*, the bottle, on which the light is playing, becomes the central axis of the composition, separating the space into two symmetrical areas and thus highlighting the opposition of the card players. Cezanne used as models peasants whom he had seen on the Jas du Bouffan family estate, near Aix-en-Provence. The two men, in Sunday best, have not taken off their hats. They seem to be frozen and concentrated on their game. Although impossible to identify, the cafe seems to be of the most basic sort, featuring a wooden table covered with a short tablecloth, ordinary chairs, a simple bottle of wine. Only a mirror on the wall adds to the decor.

 

16. The dinner and the diner is a recurring theme among artists of the so-called “Belle Époque”. Whether in a café or restaurant, all have tried it. With characters joyful, miserable, provocative, drunken, full or ravenous, all have skilfully covered this slice of life. The thing that strikes us about the couple here is the feeling of solitude. They’re there together, but their eyes never meet: each is in their own world; the other doesn’t count or, if they do, it’s only because one of the characters hopes to take advantage of the other in some way. Two wordless stories unfold. A frontier is created by the empty space between the tables: to the right, the large, lusty and full-looking bourgeois gentleman is waiting for his bill, while to the left, the thin and hungry lorette [a term for young women of light morals of the time] waits, with little conviction, for someone to buy her dinner. [Editor’s note: We can easily imagine this woman casting a look of disdain at her neighbour.] … “Le Riche” was one of the great Boulevard cafés and, like all of them, also a restaurant. The literati, newspapermen, painters, musicians and other great minds met there… Nights here could take a naughty turn, with private rooms upstairs (Source: Beaussant Lefevre auction catalogue).

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*  Several versions of The Card Players were produced by Cezanne: five copies are conserved at the Musée d'Orsay, the Courtauld Institute of Art in London, New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia. As for the fifth known copy, it was bought privately by the Qatari royal family for 228 million Euros, making it the most expensive painting in 2012! A sad record, even though the work is magnificent [Editor’s note: This record has been beaten by a work of Gaugin acquired for 265 million Euros, also in Qatar, 2015. And by a work of Leonardo da Vinci acquired for 381 million Euros in 2017, acquired by Abu Dhabi’s department of culture and tourism]. This version and those of the Musée d'Orsay and the Courtauld Institute are the only three to feature wine and just two characters. The Qatar version was finished before that of the Musée d'Orsay, and is two and a half times bigger (97 x 130cm v. 47.5 x 57cm).