Pierre Auguste Renoir | At the Cafe, 1877

Everyday life

Together with Claude Monet, Auguste Renoir is one of the central figures of impressionism.

But while Monet prefers to paint landscapes in the open air, Renoir takes everyday life as the theme for his paintings.

He frequently enjoys painting in cafés, which also brings him all kinds of commissions for portraits.

Edgar Degas | Women on a café terrace in the evening, 1877

Women in a Café or Women on a Café Terrace is a work by the French painter Edgar Degas, made in 1877 and preserved in the Musée d'Orsay in Paris.

In this pastel, Degas's curious gaze catches four women sitting on the terrace of a Parisian café talking (in the background there is a Parisian cityscape dotted with night lights).

Edgar Degas loved the evening hour in Montmartre.

As strong sunlight hurt his eyes he enjoyed wandering round Paris at night, picking up impressions, fixing indelibly on the plate of his memory certain scenes which he later developed with remarkable distinction in his studio.

Alphonse Mucha | The Abyss, c.1898

Eugène Galien-Laloue | Arc de Triomphe, Paris, 1941

Paul Cézanne | The Fishermen (Fantastic Scene) c.1875

Michael Parkes (American painter, 1944)

Michael Parkes is an American-born artist living in Spain who is best known for work in the areas of fantasy art and magic realism. He specializes in painting, stone lithography and sculpture.

Parkes studied graphic art and painting at the University of Kansas.

As a student, Parkes was fascinated by various graphic processes, and he later became proficient in the difficult medium of the colour stone lithograph.

Many of his recent works have been produced as Aurographics, limited edition giclée prints.

Istvan Sàndorfi (1948-2007)

István Sándorfi, noto anche come Étienne Sandorfi (Budapest, 12 giugno 1948 - Parigi, 26 dicembre 2007), è stato un pittore Ungherese naturalizzato Francese, appartenente alla corrente iperrealista

Nei suoi primi anni Sandorfi si dedicò soprattutto inizialmente agli autoritratti.

Nel 1973, un'esposizione al Musée d'art moderne de la Ville de Paris contribuì a fare di Sandorfi un talento in ascesa dell'iperrealismo, anche se l'artista rifiutò sempre di riconoscersi in quel movimento e si definì «semplicemente realista».

Il suo stile pittorico, che inglobava sia la tecnica iperrealista della meticolosità "fotografica" sia elementi tipici del surrealismo, fu accolto favorevolmente dalla critica.