At the Café

1874

At the Café, 1874. Edouard Manet (French, 1832–1883). Gillotage; image: 26.3 x 33.4 cm (10 3/8 x 13 1/8 in.); sheet: 26.9 x 36 cm (10 9/16 x 14 3/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of the Print Club of Cleveland in honor of its 100th anniversary 2019.57 This print by Édouard Manet depicts the Café Guerbois, a gathering place for Impressionist artists in 19th-century Paris. Although best known for his paintings, the artist was an avid printmaker throughout his entire career. Here, he experimented with transfer lithography—a new technique at the time—to suggest the quick, sketchy lines of drawing, making the image appear as if it had been created quickly and spontaneously. This image appeared in the Belgian journal L’Europe, which was censored by Parisian police. This impression is the only one known to have been saved before the journal was destroyed.