Many artists and intellectuals have used the humble café as a meeting point for centuries, so it is not surprising that coffee became the subject of many great painters.
The Impressionists were the first group to really produce many café paintings, as they captured ordinary people in everyday life in Paris.
Reading: Famous painting cafe
Vincent Van Gogh’s Post-Impressionist Cafe Terrace at Night is arguably the most famous painting of a cafe with the image reproduced millions of times on posters, postcards and calendars.
famous cafe paintings
1. cafe terrace at night – vincent van gogh
Vincent Van Gogh created a cafe terrace at night in 1888 as an oil painting. it is also known as the café terrace on the place du forum, and was originally called the café, at night (café, le soir) when it was first exhibited in 1891.
in mid-september 1888, van gogh painted a cafe terrace at night in arles, france. the image is not signed, however, the creator describes and mentions it in three letters.
visitors can stand in the northeast corner of the forum square, where the artist has set up his easel. In 1990 and 1991, the property was renovated to look like a piece of art by Van Gogh.
He looked south, toward the artificially lit courtyard of the popular cafeteria, as well as the imposed darkness of the rue du palais, which led up to a building structure (left, not seen) and beyond of this structure, the tower of an old church, now musée lapidaire.
van gogh indicated a lighted shop and some tree branches surrounding the area to the right, but left the remains of the Roman monuments directly behind this small shop.
the work is currently on display at the kröller-müller museum in otterlo, the netherlands.
2. in a coffee(l’absinthe) – edgar degas
l’absinthe (english: the absinthe drinker or glass of absinthe) is an 1875-1876 artwork by edgar degas. its original title was dans un café, which is still used today.
a sketch of a French cafe and figures in a cafe were two other early works. when the picture was shown in london in 1893, the title was changed to l’absinthe, the name by which it is now well known. It is in the permanent collection of the Musée d’orsay in Paris.
The painting, which was painted between 1875 and 1876, depicts a lady and a man sitting side by side, enjoying a glass of absinthe. they seem slow and lonely.
critics criticized the film when it was initially released in 1876, calling it ugly and dirty. it was stored until 1892, when it was put back on display, but was once again met with scorn.
the artwork was presented again in 1893, this time under the title l’absinthe, at the grafton gallery in england, where it aroused even more controversy.
English critics thought the people and drinks depicted in the artwork terribly demeaning and vulgar. many saw the image as a slap in the face to morale.
3. the café-concert – Édouard manet
the café-concert is an 1879 painting by the French painter Édouard manet, who often drew café scenes depicting social life in the late 19th century, such as those depicted in this work.
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brasserie reichshoffen on boulevard rochechouart has been recognized as a location. Manet portrays men and women in the new Parisian brasseries and cafes, giving the viewer a different perspective on modern Parisian life.
manet claimed to be creating sincere des oeuvres or “true works”. the ladies featured in these episodes were taking risks in terms of perception and morality.
In this painting, concepts of traditional composition are discarded. the figures of the people represented are not precisely defined, but are sculpted based on brushstrokes.
instead of painting layers of pigments and glazes onto a black ground, colors are applied directly to the canvas in single, repeated strokes.
4. lunch at the fournaise restaurant – pierre-auguste renoir
Lunch at the Fournaise Restaurant, also known as the Rowers’ Lunch, Déjeuner chez Fournaise, or Déjeuner au Restaurant Fournaise, is a painting by Pierre-Auguste Renoir that was completed in 1875.
It shows three people having lunch at La Maison Fournaise, which is situated on the Île des Impressionnistes (also known as Île de la Grande Jatte) on the Seine River near Chatou, west of Paris. Outside the restaurant, a canoeist is seen paddling along the river.
The image is now on display at the Art Institute of Chicago.
at his 1881 luncheon of the group of sailors, renoir also represented the maison fournaise.
5. at the moulin rouge – henri de toulouse-lautrec
French artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec created the oil painting on canvas at the Moulin Rouge (French: au moulin rouge).
It was created between 1892 and 1895. In the background is a self-portrait of the artist in profile. It is one of the many paintings by Toulouse-Lautrec depicting the Moulin Rouge cabaret, which opened in Paris in 1889.
The image shows a group of three men and two women seated around a table on the floor of the cabaret towards the center.
toulouse-lautrec, short, stands in front of and close to dr. Gabriel Tapié de Céleyran in the center-left background.
at the moulin rouge is part of the art institute of chicago’s helen birch bartlett memorial collection.
6. the night cafe – vincent van gogh
The Night Cafe (French: le café de nuit) is an oil painting painted in September 1888 in Arles by the Dutch artist Vincent Van Gogh.
The title is written in the bottom right below the signature. Yale University owns the image, which is currently on display at the Yale University Art Gallery in New Haven, Connecticut.
the café de la gare, 30 place lamartine, is pictured inside.
the painting has been described as one of van gogh’s masterpieces and one of his most recognizable works.
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unlike traditional impressionist works, the painter does not express a neutral attitude towards the universe or an attitude of appreciation of the beauty of nature or of the moment.
the image exemplifies van gogh’s use of “suggestive colour” or, as he would soon describe it, “arbitrary colour”, in which the artist filled his works with his emotions, as was characteristic of what became known as expressionism.
7. night cafe, arles – paul gauguin
Paul Gauguin painted the same spot van Gogh above as the backdrop for his painting of Madame Ginoux shortly after his arrival in Arles.
while van gogh’s painting depicts the café as an isolated space, gauguin’s nocturnal café in arles combines the themes of solitude (on the left of the painting) with energetic socializing (middle, behind mme .ginoux).
was also bought by ivan morozov and is currently on display at the pushkin museum of fine arts.
8. terrace of a cafe in montmartre (la guinguette) – vincent van gogh
van gogh painted “la guinguette” in 1886 at the time montmartre would have had a rather small town feel even though it was part of the city of paris.
this cafe scene has a much darker overall tone compared to some of van gogh’s works from the same period, namely the cafe terrace at night.
the color palette was in stark contrast to some of the cafe’s most famous patrons at the time; the impressionists
9. the royal cafe, london – william orpen
major sir william newenham montague orpen (november 27, 1878 – september 29, 1931) was an irish painter who worked mainly in london.
orpen was a gifted draftsman, as well as a popular and financially successful portrait painter for the upper class of Edwardian society.
Daniel Nicholas Thévenon, a French wine merchant, designed and established the Café Real in 1865. Due to insolvency, he was forced to leave France, arriving in Britain in 1863 with his wife, Célestine, and just five pounds in cash
He changed his name to Daniel Nicols, and the Café Royal prospered under his, and later his wife’s, management, once thought to have the world’s largest wine cellar.
by the 1890s, the café royal had established itself as the place to see and be seen.
William Orpen painted this scene in 1912 and it is currently in the Musée d’orsay in Paris.
10. Au Café – Jean Beraud
Jean Béraud (January 12, 1849 – October 4, 1935) was a French painter known for his many works of Parisian life and nightlife.
Images of the Champs Elysees, the cafes, Montmartre, and the banks of the Seine are meticulously detailed depictions of ordinary Parisian life during the “belle Époque.” he also painted religious subjects in modern settings.
He painted several pictures of Parisian daily life halfway between academic salon art and impressionist painting. in 1894, he received the legion d’honneur.
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