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Untitled (Café Scene)

Artist Jean Metzinger (French, 1883-1956)

Dateca. 1940

MediumOil on canvas

DimensionsUnframed: 38 1/4 × 31 1/2 in. (97.2 × 80 cm)
Overall, Frame: 50 5/8 × 43 1/2 × 2 in. (128.6 × 110.5 × 5.1 cm)

ClassificationsEuropean art

Credit LineGift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.

Object number71.680

Terms

Man
Woman
Cubism
Abstract

Collections

European Art before 1945

On View

On view

DescriptionThis is an oil on canvas painting. The viewer is presented with a man and woman seated at a table in a café. Behind the woman's head, backward letters indicate they are inside the café. Nearly all shapes are angled, with the exception of the semicircle of the man's sweater neck and the woman. There is no soft value change; each shape and line controls its own color in contrast to that which is next to it. The palette is primary with black and white. The viewer is given a view of the couple both in profile and front view at the same time.

Label TextJean Metzinger French, 1883–1956 Untitled (Café Scene), ca. 1940s Oil on canvas With bright colors and a wittily nuanced design, Jean Metzinger celebrates an age-old symbol of Parisian life: a pair of lovers seated in a café. Metzinger depicts their heads both frontally and as shadowy silhouettes, a clever use of Cubist double imagery that alludes both to their public presence and to their private relationship. By the 1940s, many Cubists like Metzinger had abandoned the movement’s formal discipline for relaxed applications of the style. Such is the case here, where bold patterning and a vibrant palette create a stylish image of French daily life. Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. 71.680