Café Society: Art and Sociability in Belle Époque Paris
$39.95

Café Society: Art and Sociability in Belle Époque Paris explores the vibrant café culture that shaped artistic and social life in late nineteenth-century Paris. Featuring more than fifty-five works by both celebrated and lesser-known French and expatriate American artists, the volume examines how cafés, brasseries, restaurants, and cabarets became essential gathering places for artists, writers, intellectuals, and performers during a period of rapid urban transformation.

As Paris’s newly redesigned city center fostered the rise of a modern bourgeois public, cafés such as Café Guerbois, the Ambassadeurs, and Le Lapin Agile became dynamic spaces where social classes mingled and creative communities formed. The lively interiors, performances, and social rituals of these venues inspired artists including Édouard Manet, Edgar Degas, Jean Béraud, and Pablo Picasso, whose works captured the energy and complexity of Belle Époque urban life. This richly illustrated catalogue accompanies the traveling exhibition presented at Ordrupgaard Museum, Charlottenlund, Denmark; Dixon Gallery and Gardens, Memphis; and the Joslyn Art Museum, offering fresh insight into the intersection of art, leisure, and modernity.

Hardcover
Publisher: Giles
Publication date: February 5, 2026
Language: English
Print length: 208 pages
Dimensions: 9.5" x 2" x 11"

ISBN: 9781913875800