The Café of the New Athens
c. 1876
Medium
Etching on tan wove paper
Dimensions
Plate: 16 × 12 cm (6 5/16 × 4 3/4 in.); Sheet: 25.2 × 20.8 cm (9 15/16 × 8 1/4 in.)
Classification
etching
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
63318
Art Historical Context
Jean-Louis Forain’s *The Café of the New Athens* captures a fleeting moment of Parisian social life in the mid-1870s. Created as an intimate etching on tan wove paper, the small plate size—measuring just 16 by 12 centimeters—invites close viewing, drawing the eye into the subtle interplay of light and shadow that defines the bustling café interior. Forain, then a young artist moving in Impressionist circles, used the etching medium’s precise lines and tonal range to evoke the lively atmosphere of the Café de la Nouvelle Athènes, a favored gathering spot for painters, writers, and intellectuals...