Guy Pène du Bois 1884-1958

Richard G. Osbourne, New York, circa 1960
Acquired by the present owner from the above, circa 1964

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, 125th Annual Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture, January-March 1930, no. 325, illustrated

Good condition. Panel is slightly bowed at upper and lower edges. A few small surface scratches at lower center edge, and one tiny loss at lower left corner. Scattered dots and dashes in the upper background, mostly concentrated towards the edges. A few small spots in the third figure from the right.
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Guy Pène du Bois painted Café Dôme in 1926 during the artist's nearly six year stay in France, where he lived with his family in the small village of Garnes about 30 miles from Paris. A dutiful student of Robert Henri and an ardent social observer, Pène du Bois painted in the realist tradition established by The Eight. Betsy Fahlman writes, "The artist pictured subjects emblematic of the era: the sophisticated urbanite, the flapper, and the American abroad in fashionable settings – cafés, theatres, and art galleries" ("Imagining the Twenties, The Work of Guy Pène du Bois," in Guy Pène du Bois, The Twenties at Home and Abroad, 1995, np).

With a distinctively independent and rebellious attitude, the flapper entered the popular parlance in 1920, and the subject preoccupied Pène du Bois throughout much of his career. In the present work a group of flappers gather and drink at the Café Dôme. Located on the Boulevard du Montparnasse at the corner of the Boulevard Raspail, the café opened in 1898 and was popular among artists and writers. Intrigued by interpersonal relationships or lack there of, Pène du Bois depicts the figures in close proximity but seemingly unaware of the presence of those around them. Using a subtle, blue and rose-toned palette with refined brushwork, Café Dôme elegantly captures the spirit of Parisian society.