Jean Béraud

Bernheim-Jeune, Paris (acquired directly from the artist on June 7, 1909, stock no. 17477 and sold on June 12)
Private Collection

Patrick Offenstadt, Jean Béraud 1849-1935, The Belle Époque: A Dream of Times Gone by, Catalogue Raisonné, Cologne, 1999, p. 221, no. 277, illustrated

The following condition report was kindly provided by Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc.: This painting is in very presentable condition. The canvas is unlined and has never been removed from its original stretcher. There are three repaired damages which are visible on the reverse of the canvas, one in the lower right, on in the lower left in the back of the chair, and a third in the legs of the seated woman. The paint layer is not abraded and is very fresh looking. Some cracking has developed in the hat of the woman and in the back of the man seated on the left. The restorations have been quite diligently applied and address a series of thin scratches to the paint layer above and to the right of the head of the woman and in the hanging coat on the far left. The loss addressed by the patch on the reverse in the back of the chair has received retouches and there are two other retouches above the seat of the chair in the lower right. The painting should be hung as is.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

The present work is one of a thematic series of café or bar interiors completed by the artist in circa 1908-9. In the present work, two rivals concentrate over the next roll of the dice as a companion's bored expression is framed by feathered hat, fur stole, and jaunty gloves. She is a "type" probably best well-known in Edouard Manet's The Plum of 1878 (fig. 1). While Béraud's café patrons changed from scene to scene, a consistent presence in his compositions was la fée verte (the Green Fairy)—a glass of absinthe. In the present work the unmistakable vibrant tint of the infamous liquor is subdued by shades of white, the result of the "louche effect," in which the herbal oils of the drink turn opaque after cold water is added. By the early twentieth century, good drink was available to nearly everyone in France, and enjoying a quaff was an increasingly acceptable public activity visible in a number of different establishments though perhaps most often in the cafés. Cafés offered a communal space for their steady clientele in which leisure and social activity—like a good game of backgammon—could be enjoyed along with a meal and a drink—or two. In particular, absinthe, which had once been a working-class drink, exploded in popularity.  Widely promoted and easily purchased, its high alcohol volume (rather than its largely mythologized hallucinatory effects) offered the perfect excuse to sip slowly and pause from the hectic pace of urban living.  Whereas many artists, writers, and bon vivants sipped absinthe to inspire free-thinking creativity, Béraud suggests it often served a less philosophical purpose: to inspire a winning game strategy.