Café society: art and sociability in Belle Époque Paris

Abstract

"Paris in the late nineteenth century witnessed an explosion in cafés, brasseries, and restaurants, as well as a host of musical and performance spaces, that became social gathering spots for a wide range of artists, writers, intellectuals, political activists, performers, and hangers-on. These cafés included Café Guerbois on Avenue de Clichy, frequented by Manet and Degas, the Café des Ambassadeurs on the Champs-Élysées, a favorite haunt of Jean Béraud, and Le Lapin Agile, the informal cabaret in Montmartre closely associated with the struggling modernist artist Pablo Picasso. Presenting more than sixty-five works by a broad cross-section of major names in French, Scandinavian, and expatriate American art, this beautifully illustrated volume looks at the changing role of cafés as gathering places for a new type of urban bourgeois clientele." -- Provided by publisher.

Contents

L'addition, s'il vous plaît / Jack Becker, Gertrud Oelsner, Kevin Sharp -- The café is a "thinking space" / W. Scott Haine, Jeffrey H. Jackson -- Cafés and the city of Paris / Jeffrey H. Jackson -- Femme au café : the complexities and evolution of women's presence in Parisian cafés in the long nineteenth century / Julie Pierotti -- Café de la Régence : the Paris haunt of Nordic artists / Dorthe Vangsgaard Nielsen -- Modern icons : lithography and the making of café society / Taylor J. Acosta -- Catalogue of the exhibition -- Glossary -- Map of Paris -- Bibliography -- Index -- Photo credits.