At the Café (Au café)

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. Title: At the Café Creator: Edouard Manet (French, 1832-1883) Date Created: 1874 Physical Dimensions: 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.) Provenance: Rouart Collection, Paris, France, (sale, Klipstein & Kornfeld, Bern, May 17, 1957), (sale, Christie's, London, December 2, 1987), Graphisches Kabinett Kunsthandel Wolfgang Werner, Bremen, Germany, Klaus J. Jacobs, Zürich, (sale, Kunsthaus Lempertz, Berlin, December 1, 2017), (Joel R. Bergquist Fine Arts, Nashville, TN, sold to the Print Club of Cleveland, Cleveland, OH), Print Club of Cleveland, Cleveland, OH, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH, Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH Type: Print Rights: CC0 Medium: gillotage Inscriptions: signed, in plate, at lower right: Manet, on recto, at lower left: fragment of an unidentified blind stamp (HN within shield) Fun Fact: This image appeared in the Belgian journal <em>L’Europe</em>, which was censored by Parisian police. This impression is the only one known to have been saved before the journal was destroyed. Department: Prints Culture: France, 19th century Credit Line: Gift of the Print Club of Cleveland in honor of its 100th anniversary Collection: PR - Lithograph Accession Number: 2019.57