Description
Chez le Père Lathuille is Manet’s 1879 scene in the garden of a Paris restaurant on the Avenue de Clichy: a young man in a pale jacket with a huge black bow leans towards a lady in a dark dress and small hat at a table with a white cloth. The original, oil on canvas measuring 92 x 112 cm, belongs to the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Tournai, Belgium. Our painter paints it for you by hand in oil on canvas, in 7 landscape sizes from 40 x 32 to 85 x 67 cm, or to a custom size within that range. Before the couple in the garden leave us, you receive a photograph of your finished painting.
| Title: | Chez le Père Lathuille |
| Other titles: | Chez le père Lathuille, en plein air (full French title) · At the Père Lathuille Restaurant |
| Painter: | Édouard Manet (1832–1883) |
| Year painted: | 1879 |
| Original size: | 92 cm x 112 cm (height x width) |
| Original technique: | Oil on canvas |
| Painting style: | Realism and Impressionism |
| Located at: | Musée des Beaux-Arts, Tournai, Belgium |
| Our reproduction: | Hand-painted in oil on canvas, 7 sizes or made to measure |
Chez le Père Lathuille – Édouard Manet
What does Chez le Père Lathuille show?
In a sunlit restaurant garden, at a table with a white cloth, sits a lady in a long-sleeved dark brown dress, with a white scarf at her throat, fingerless gloves and a small hat on her pinned-up hair. She sits upright, almost stiffly, her face in profile.
Beside her a young man with a black moustache and centre-parted hair leans over the table in a cream jacket, an enormous blue-black bow at his collar. His right hand holds a glass of champagne; his left arm rests along the back of her wooden chair. He looks up at her, his eyes wide open.
Behind them the greenery grows thick, with a pale green post at the top left. On the gravel path at the right an older waiter in a white apron holds a brass-coloured coffee pot and looks our way. At the lower left, on the tablecloth, Manet signed his name with the year 1879.
What is happening between the young man and the lady?
This is a moment of courtship: the lady has reached dessert, and the young man has sat down beside her to win her favour. The Wikipedia article on Manet describes a man showing an interest in a woman dining near him that she does not return.
The table is laid for one. The art historian Hans Körner calls the young man’s pose, his arm around her chair, possessive.
Between the two stands a gnarled tree whose trunk forks at head height; some read it as a sign of what keeps the couple apart.
Why is this painting so well known?
Manet painted it on the spot in July 1879 and added the words en plein air, in the open air, to the title himself. He did this for no other work.
Édouard Manet (1832–1883) was one of the first nineteenth-century artists to paint modern life and a pivotal figure in the move from Realism to Impressionism. In spring 1880 he showed this canvas at the Paris Salon. Opinion was split: Armand Silvestre praised its modernity, while Paul Mantz found the young man’s hair too blue.
The writer Joris-Karl Huysmans defended it as life set down without emphasis, just as it is. For the restaurant and its past, see the Wikipedia article on the painting, written in English.
Where is the original, and who posed for it?
The original, oil on canvas measuring 92 x 112 cm (height x width), belongs to the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Tournai, Belgium, under inventory number 439.
The young man is Louis Gauthier-Lathuille, then 22, the son of the restaurant’s owner. Manet first painted him in his dragoon uniform, then swapped it for his own sand-coloured painter’s smock. The lady was first to be the actress Ellen Andrée, but theatre rehearsals kept her away, so Judith French, a cousin of the composer Jacques Offenbach, took her place.
Manet kept the painting until he died. It then passed to Théodore Duret, the opera singer Jean-Baptiste Faure and the Brussels hotelier Henri van Cutsem, who left his collection to the sculptor Guillaume Charlier; Charlier brought it in 1927 to the newly opened museum in Tournai.
The Père Lathuille restaurant stood in the Batignolles quarter at 7 Avenue de Clichy, just beyond the Barrière de Clichy so as to escape the Paris wine taxes. In March 1814 Marshal Moncey made it his command post for the defence of Paris, and the landlord poured his wine for the soldiers on the house, so that not one bottle would be left in his casks.
Chez le Père Lathuille or another Manet?
This is a canvas painting for anyone who loves summer gardens, Paris restaurants and quiet stories between two people.
If Manet’s eye for leisure appeals to you, see The Races at Longchamp, with horses galloping straight at the viewer, or the cheerful pipe smoker in Le Bon Bock. Quieter company comes from Boy Blowing Bubbles and Young Lady in 1866.
Our Édouard Manet page gathers more famous Manet paintings that we paint to order.
How do we hand-paint Chez le Père Lathuille?
Manet’s original is an oil on canvas larger than any of our sizes, painted outdoors in short strokes and small dabs of bright summer colour.
Ours is an oil painting reproduction worked in oil on canvas by our painter, in the size you choose, built up layer by layer.
He first sets down the table edge, the chair and the two figures, then the greenery, the path and the waiter, and last the glints of light on the cloth, the glass and the jacket. The background stays loose and sketchy, as Manet left it.
Which size fits which wall?
In short: 40 x 32 or 45 x 37 cm for a shelf or narrow wall, 50 x 42 and 56 x 48 cm above a chest of drawers, and 65 x 52, 74 x 59 or 85 x 67 cm above a sofa or in a dining room.
We paint it in 7 landscape sizes (width x height): 40 x 32, 45 x 37, 50 x 42, 56 x 48, 65 x 52, 74 x 59 and 85 x 67 cm. The original measures 112 x 92 cm (width x height), so all our sizes are smaller than it; the largest, 85 x 67 cm, reaches about three quarters of its width.
We stop at 85 x 67 cm because the only good photograph of the original, which we paint from, is small; at a larger size the detail would be lost. As a painting for the living room it looks best at 74 x 59 or 85 x 67 cm above a sofa or sideboard.
Can I have another size or a frame?
Yes, within the range up to 85 x 67 cm. For other proportions we keep the couple and the waiter whole and adjust only the edge of the greenery or the cloth. Tell us your custom size for the garden scene, and we will come back with a price and a date.
It reaches you rolled, stretched on a stretcher bar or ready framed, with the stretching and framing carried out in our workshop in Slovenia. For Chez le Père Lathuille you pick the moulding in our 3D app, which exists only for choosing frames; a view of the painting on your own wall is a separate service.
When will my painting arrive?
Our painter starts as soon as you confirm the order, and the painting is ready to ship within 15 to 45 working days. Once it is finished we send you a photograph, and if you want anything changed we do it before packing.
It travels within Slovenia and across the EU with no customs duties, and our returns policy applies to every order.
This Paris garden scene makes a lovely gift for a couple, an anniversary or anyone who loves Paris. Not sure which wall it will hang on? A wall art voucher lets the person you are treating pick the size.
Frequently asked questions
Where can I see the original?
At the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Tournai, Belgium, under inventory number 439.
Who are the young man and the lady?
The young man is Louis Gauthier-Lathuille, the owner’s son; Judith French posed for the lady in place of the actress Ellen Andrée.
Is this a print?
No. It is a hand-painted copy: every stroke of oil on the canvas comes from our painter’s brush.
How big is the original?
It measures 92 x 112 cm (height x width), larger than all our sizes, which go up to 85 x 67 cm.
Why is there no size above 85 x 67 cm?
Because the only good photograph of the original is small; a bigger format would blur the detail.
How long does it take?
15 to 45 working days; you see the garden scene in a photograph before it leaves.
Is this garden scene right for a dining room, or as a gift?
Yes. The summery garden lunch suits a dining room, and as a present it pleases couples and lovers of Paris.
Does the lady return the young man’s interest?
According to the Wikipedia article on Manet, no: the man shows his interest, and she stays reserved.
- Subject: a young man in a cream jacket leans towards a lady in a Paris restaurant garden.
- Original: oil on canvas, 1879, 92 x 112 cm, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Tournai.
- Ours: an Édouard Manet reproduction hand-painted in oil on canvas, 7 sizes from 40 x 32 to 85 x 67 cm, or custom within that range.
- Worth knowing: painted in the restaurant garden itself in summer 1879.
