Interior with Three Figures in a Café

Today is our last Sunday with the collection of the Lenbachhaus Museum in Munich. We hope you enjoyed our partnership!

Erma Bossi in Paris: she frequents cafés, restaurants, and cabarets on Montmartre, goes to the opera and the circus, and revels in these metropolitan motifs. We don’t know for certain whether this actually happened—there’s so much in the life of this painter, a native of Istria, that we don’t know. What is certain is that from 1909 until 1911 she joined the artists of the New Artists’ Association Munich to discuss ideas and show her work. In the Association’s exhibition in late 1909, she presented a picture titled Café Blanche, Paris—most probably the work shown here.

Lively renditions of café scenes were an integral part of modern painting’s repertoire. Bossi gave the stock theme a twist with a rather muted scene. Two figures at a small table turn toward each other in conversation: a lady wearing a plumed hat and her companion, whose gender isn’t clearly marked. A waiter idles in the background.

Yet the scene’s calmness contrasts with the explosive energy of its depiction. Bossi combines divergent perspectives: one vanishing line runs on the left across the stairs and to the stage. A row of lamps guiding the eye into the depth at right marks a second line. By contrast, the picture’s center is largely devoid of salient forms and colors. Gleaming dark and vibrant light colors are juxtaposed to heighten their luminosity. Bossi transforms this quiet interior into a sophisticated and stimulating visual experience.

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