In Paris–A Café Artist

Eugénie (Nini) Pasque|Charles Dana Gibson|Frederick William MacMonnies

1894 · Pen and ink over graphite on artist's board · Drawings and Prints

An iconic Gilded Age illustrator, Gibson described and satirized the social habits of upperclass Americans in New York and Boston, selling his first drawing to Life Magazine in 1886 and remaining attached to that publication for three decades (he became editor in 1918 and finally owner). The artist famously created the Gibson Girl, said to have been inspired by Irene Langhorne (whom he married in 1895) and her three glamorous sisters. This image portrays a range of types lounging in an outdoor café in Paris must have been made during a trip of 1893 or 1894--Gibson knew the city well, having studied at the Académie Julian. With genial humor he represents a bohemian couple, the woman's floppy velvet hat distinctly different from that of the fashionably veiled lady behind her. Her companion slouches in his chair while being sketched by a street artist whose work fascinates a Zouave (a French soldier whose distinctive uniform derives from his regiment's Algerian origins).

Artist

Eugénie (Nini) Pasque|Charles Dana Gibson|Frederick William MacMonnies

Date

1894

Medium

Pen and ink over graphite on artist's board

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Gift of Jacqueline Loewe Fowler, 2020