La Taverne Pausset, Paris

Edouard-Jean Dambourgez (French, 1844–1931).

This work is offered unframed.

A fine and detailed, cabinet-size oil painting showing an elegant Parisian cafe and bar, the interior lit by luminous, floor-to-ceiling stained-glass windows and filled with fashionably dressed patrons drinking and socializing beneath a haze of pipe and cigar smoke. A minor period masterpiece, providing an animated view of the city's fin-de-siècle nightlife, and characterized by finely observed and fully realized figures, showing an unusual degree of both social commentary and psychological penetration.

Edouard-Jean Dambourgez first studied with Jules Lefebvre and, subsequently, as an engraver and chromo-lithographer under Gustave Boulanger. In 1880, Dambourgez commenced exhibiting at the Salon des Artistes Français, and, in 1883, was elected a member of the Society. Throughout the 1880s, he exhibited frequently and with success at the major Paris salons, including the Salon d'Automne, the Salon des Independants and the Salon des Champs-de-Mars. In 1884, he was commissioned by the Louvre to engrave all illustrations for the catalog to the Thiers Collection, recently bequeathed to the museum. The recipient of numerous prizes, medals and juried awards, Dambourgez was awarded an honorable distinction by the Salon in 1888, and an honorable mention in 1891.

In 1888, the critic Albert Wolff recommended his painting A Cheese Shop for inclusion at the Salon des Artistes Français. In 1891, the city of Paris bought his large canvas, The Cream and Cheese Market at Les Halles and, in 1921, his city view titled Canal in Dordrecht.

According to the Revue des Beaux-Arts, the artist's style evolved from realistic to naturalist, and, by 1894, to "frankly Impressionist." Dambourgez left Paris in 1896 and subsequently lived and painted in Spain, Italy and Morocco while continuing to exhibit with success in Paris.

Signed and titled lower right; inscribed verso