Au Café

Degas made a number of paintings, prints and drawings of women in cafés between 1875 and 1877. The two women in this painting have sometimes been described as prostitutes, however Degas seems to have been less concerned with their identities than evoking the intimate – and apparently troubled – nature of their exchange.

The painting remained in the artist’s possession until his death in 1917. It was one of the first paintings by an Impressionist painter to enter the Museum’s collection.

Bequeathed; 1939; hindley smith, frank