Description
At the Café is a Paris brasserie scene painted by Édouard Manet in 1878: side by side at a marble table sit a woman in a grey coat and a small round hat, who looks at us cheerfully, a bearded man in a black top hat, and a young woman with red-brown hair, seen in profile. The original is oil on canvas, 78 x 84 cm, and belongs to the Oskar Reinhart Collection “Am Römerholz” in Winterthur, Switzerland. Our painter hand-paints it in oil on canvas, in 8 nearly square sizes from 40 x 36 to 200 x 192 cm, or made to measure. Before the three guests travel to you, we send you a photograph of them.
| Title: | At the Café |
| Other titles: | Au café (French title) |
| Painter: | Édouard Manet (1832–1883) |
| Year painted: | 1878 |
| Original size: | 78 cm x 84 cm (height x width) |
| Original technique: | Oil on canvas |
| Painting style: | Realism and Impressionism |
| Located at: | Oskar Reinhart Collection “Am Römerholz”, Winterthur, Switzerland |
| Our reproduction: | Hand-painted in oil on canvas, 8 sizes or made to measure |
At the Café – Édouard Manet
What does At the Café show?
The crop is tight, as if the painter sat at the next table. In front sits a woman in a full grey coat with large buttons and a small round hat with a dark band. One hand grips the back of a wooden chair; her head is turned slightly and she meets our eyes with a bright face and the hint of a smile.
Right behind her sits a man with a beard, a moustache and a tall black top hat, in a dark coat, a walking stick slanting across his chest. He looks past us to the right, as does the young woman beside him: long red-brown hair with a fringe, a dark dress with a white collar, pure profile.
On the right a pale marble table runs towards us, with glasses in which the beer glows orange. A window hung with posters closes the background, their lettering reversed as in a mirror. Another top hat rises from the crowd at the left edge, and Manet’s signature sits at the lower right, by the edge of the table.
What story does the brasserie scene tell?
Manet often went to the Brasserie Reichshoffen on the boulevard de Rochechouart in Paris, and he based this canvas on it in 1878. Several people sit at the bar; one woman returns the viewer’s gaze while the rest wait to be served.
Manet’s café paintings observe social life in 19th-century Paris. People in them drink beer, listen to music, flirt, read or simply wait. Many of these scenes began as sketches he made on the spot.
Such works have been called the painted journal of a flâneur, the Parisian stroller who watches the city without hurry.
Why do people love this painting?
Manet, born in 1832 into a wealthy Paris family, was among the first painters of his century to turn to everyday city life, and he is now seen as the bridge between Realism and Impressionism.
His Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe and Olympia caused great controversy in the 1860s and are regarded as the start of modern art. He was friends with Degas, Monet and Renoir but never exhibited with the Impressionists, preferring the Salon, and in 1881 he received the Légion d’honneur.
This café scene shows what people value most in Manet: a loose, quick brushstroke that looks back to Frans Hals and Velázquez yet catches the mood of a Paris evening. The Wikipedia article on Édouard Manet, written in English, is about the painter and covers his café scenes; this canvas has no article of its own there.
Where is the original, and what inspired it?
The original is oil on canvas, 78 x 84 cm (height x width): almost square, just a little wider than it is tall.
It belongs to the Oskar Reinhart Collection “Am Römerholz” in Winterthur, Switzerland, under inventory number SOR 1953.3.
The scene comes from the Brasserie Reichshoffen, a place Manet liked to drop into.
At the Café or another Manet?
This is a canvas painting for people who love the buzz of a city and care more for faces than for scenery.
Another Paris café regular appears in Chez Tortoni, where a man in a top hat writes on a sheet of paper and looks up at us. Darker, and painted nearly twenty years earlier, is The Absinthe Drinker, a tall man in a brown cloak against a dark wall.
For a portrait, choose Berthe Morisot with a Bouquet of Violets; for summer by the water, Argenteuil shows a couple on a wooden landing stage on the Seine. Cafés, portraits and river scenes alike sit among the famous Manet paintings on our Édouard Manet page, each painted to order.
How do we hand-paint At the Café?
The original is a mid-sized oil, so you can order ours smaller than Manet’s canvas or a good deal larger. Manet painted the scene in oil on canvas, and our painter works the same way: each oil painting reproduction is made on new canvas, in oil colours and layer by layer, in the size you choose.
The painter first draws the slanting table edge and the three heads in a row, because that diagonal carries the scene. Then come the grey of the coat, the men’s dark clothes and the pale bluish window, and last the gleam of the top hats, the beer in the glasses and the mirror-reversed letters on the posters.
Manet laid in the background with long, fast strokes and painted the faces with more care. We keep that balance between loose and precise, because without it the scene loses its sense of the moment.
Which size suits which wall?
In short: 40 x 36 or 50 x 45 cm for a shelf or a kitchen, 60 x 54 and 80 x 72 cm above a chest of drawers or in a dining room, 100 x 90 and 130 x 115 cm above a sofa, and 160 x 150 or 200 x 192 cm for a large wall at home or in a bar.
We paint it in 8 sizes (width x height): 40 x 36, 50 x 45, 60 x 54, 80 x 72, 100 x 90, 130 x 115, 160 x 150 and 200 x 192 cm. The original measures 84 x 78 cm (width x height): the four sizes up to 80 x 72 cm are smaller, with 80 x 72 cm very close to it; 100 x 90 cm is already slightly larger, and 130 x 115, 160 x 150 and 200 x 192 cm go well beyond it.
As a painting for the living room it works best at 100 x 90 or 130 x 115 cm above the sofa, where the gaze of the woman in grey reaches across the whole room.
Is another size or a frame possible?
Yes. If your wall needs different proportions, we keep the three at the table and the glasses whole and adjust the window behind them and the crowd at the left edge. Tell us your custom size for the café scene, and a price and date follow.
The café scene travels rolled, stretched on a stretcher bar or framed. Our workshop in Slovenia handles the stretching and framing and packs every painting securely before dispatch.
The moulding is picked in our 3D app, which does nothing but frame choice; seeing the painting on your own wall is a separate service.
When will my painting arrive?
Work on the three guests begins once you confirm, and the painting is ready to ship within 15 to 45 working days. Before we pack it, we send you a photograph of the finished painting, and if you would like something changed, we correct it.
We ship within Slovenia and to every other EU country without customs duties, and every order falls under our returns policy.
It makes a fine gift for lovers of Paris or for a new café or bar. Unsure of their wall? A wall art voucher lets them pick the size of their own café scene.
Frequently asked questions
Where can I see the original?
In the Oskar Reinhart Collection “Am Römerholz” in Winterthur, Switzerland, inventory number SOR 1953.3.
Which café inspired the scene?
The Brasserie Reichshoffen on the boulevard de Rochechouart in Paris, which Manet often visited.
Is this a print?
No. It is a hand-painted copy, brushed by our painter in oil colours onto canvas.
How big is Manet’s canvas?
78 x 84 cm (height x width); our sizes from 100 x 90 cm up are larger than it.
Can I order a size that is not listed?
Yes. Give us the width and height for your café scene and we will quote a price and a date.
How long does it take to make?
15 to 45 working days; before the café scene leaves us, you see it in a photograph.
Does it suit a dining room or a kitchen?
Yes. The scene with beer on a marble table sits well in a dining room, a kitchen with a breakfast corner or beside a home bar.
Who is the woman in grey looking at?
Straight at the viewer, while the other guests, according to the Manet article, wait to be served.
- Subject: three guests of a Paris brasserie at a marble table with beer, a window with posters behind them.
- Original: oil on canvas, 1878, 78 x 84 cm, Oskar Reinhart Collection, Winterthur.
- Ours: a hand-painted Édouard Manet reproduction in oil on canvas, in 8 sizes (40 x 36 to 200 x 192 cm) or made to measure.
- Worth knowing: the scene draws on the Brasserie Reichshoffen, where Manet liked to go.
