At the Café (c. 1897–99): Art, History and Details

At the Café (c. 1897–99) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Édouard Vuillard (French, 1868–1940).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

This scene of two women in a Parisian café has a hushed atmosphere that is heightened by the warm palette and glow of gaslight. Édouard Vuillard and Félix Vallotton were close friends and painted together in the 1890s, but Vuillard’s quiet café and Vallotton’s riotous Bistro (2020.114) could not be more different in mood.

Object facts

• Title: At the Café
• Date: c. 1897–99
• Creator attribution: Édouard Vuillard (French, 1868–1940)
• Culture: France, 19th century
• Type: Painting
• Technique: oil on board, laid on cradled panel
• Dimensions: Unframed: 28.8 x 27.5 cm (11 5/16 x 10 13/16 in.)
• Collection: Mod Euro - Painting 1800-1960
• Department: Modern European Painting and Sculpture
• Accession number: 1958.57

A detail from the museum

Vuillard once said, “I don’t do portraits. I paint people in their surroundings.”

Collection credit

Bequest of Leonard C. Hanna Jr.

Further reading listed by the museum

• “Annual Report of the Year 1958.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 46, no. 6 (June 1959): 111–158.
• Henning, Edward B. “Pierre Bonnard: La Terrasse de Café.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 65, no. 2 (February 1978): 58–65.
• Henning, Edward B. “New Paintings by Four Artists from Britain.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 69, no. 10 (December 1982): 311–323.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.