In the Café

1882–84

Here, a fashionably dressed woman sits alone and alert in a Parisian café. Her presence is a sign of modern Paris’s changing social environment, in which café culture offered women new opportunities for leisure in public spaces. Although artist Fernand Lungren employed a dense, hard-edged style, his interest in modern life and the effects of light (here both gas and electric lighting) was nevertheless indebted to French Impressionism.

Public domain · CC0
Free to download and reuse. Image courtesy of Art Institute of Chicago.

Artist

Fernand Lungren (American, 1857–1932)

Date

1882–84

Medium

Oil on canvas

Dimensions

79.7 × 104.8 cm (31 3/8 × 41 1/4 in.)

Origin

Paris

Collection

Art Institute of Chicago

Credit

Charles H. and Mary F. S. Worcester Collection