- 8
Jean Béraud
bidding is closed
Description
- Jean Béraud
- Café Society
- signed Jean Béraud (lower right)
- oil on panel
- 17 3/4 by 21 1/2 in.
- 45 by 54.6 cm
Provenance
Maxwell Galleries, San Francisco
Acquired from the above by the present owner in 1961
Acquired from the above by the present owner in 1961
Catalogue Note
A large number of the artist's cafe scenes featuring absinthe drinkers were sold to Bernheim Jeune in 1909, and seem to have been painted around 1890. The artist's preoccupation with the slightly sinister side of café life echoed that of Henri Toulouse-Lautrec. Stylishly dressed, this pair could be seen to symbolize the decadence of the age, and in the male sitter's case, the mental disquiet caused by the addictive green beverage. He could easily represent Coupeau in Zola's classic tale of lives destroyed by alcoholism, L' Assomoir.