Jean Béraud

Bernheim-Jeune, Paris (acquired directly from the artist, November 1909, as Partie d'échecs, no. 17745)
Sale: Sotheby's, London, June 19, 1985, lot 225, illustrated
Galerie Berko, Paris (1986)
Sale: Sotheby's, New York, May 7, 1998, lot 253, illustrated
Acquired at the above sale

 Patrick Offenstadt, Jean Béraud, 1849-1935, The Belle Époque: The Dream of Times Gone By, catalogue raisonné, Cologne, 1999, p. 221, no. 274, illustrated p. 220

The following condition report was kindly provided by Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc.: This work has recently been cleaned and retouched. It is painted on a panel. The panel is flat, but the paint layer is showing slight blistering in the lower left quadrant and also in the glass screen behind the figures. It is hard to positively read under ultraviolet light, but, although there are some very fine cracks to the paint layer, the only retouches to these cracks appear to be in the ceiling of the bar and perhaps in the lower portion of the picture. These compositions by the artist often show condition issues, but once the paint layer is stabilized here, the condition will be seen to be very good.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

The present work is one of a thematic series of café or bar interiors completed by the artist in the 1890s. While Béraud's café patrons changed from day to day, a consistent presence in these compositions was la fée verte (the Green Fairy) — a glass of absinthe. In the present work the unmistakable vibrant tint of the infamous liquor is subdued by shades of white, the result of the "louche effect," in which the herbal oils of the drink turn opaque after cold water is added. By the late nineteenth century, good drink was available to nearly everyone in France, and enjoying a quaff was an increasingly acceptable public activity visible in a number of different establishments though perhaps most often in the cafés. Cafés offered a communal space for their steady clientele in which leisure and social activity—like a good game of backgammon—could be enjoyed along with a meal and a drink—or two. In particular, absinthe, which had once been a working-class drink, exploded in popularity.  Widely promoted and easily purchased, its high alcohol volume (rather than its largely mythologized hallucinatory effects) offered the perfect excuse to sip slowly and pause from the hectic pace of urban living.  Whereas many artists, writers, and bon vivants sipped absinthe to inspire free-thinking creativity, Béraud suggests it often served a less philosophical purpose: to inspire a winning game strategy.