Description
On his first sojourn in Paris in 1902, Axel Törneman stayed at the Grand Pigalle Hôtel in the bohemian quarter of Montmartre, a stone’s throw from the vibrant Le Café Pigalle, which was known as Café du Rat Mort (Dead Rat Cafe). Rat Mort was famous for its cabaret and for its cocottes, a kind of exclusive sex workers. After several years in Paris, Törneman had the idea of summarising the city’s night life in Night Café. The focus of this painting is on a cocotte in a mint-green feather boa, a hat of faded roses and an empty gaze. Champagne flowed at Rat Mort, but the absinthe-green veil Törneman casts over the café enhances the atmosphere of doom and his love-hate relationship to the self-consuming stress, worry and anxiety of bohemia. Törneman became a pioneer of Swedish modernism and won his first general acclaim on his home territory in 1907, when Ernest Thiel bought Night Café.
Alternative title
Lumière artificielle
Inscriptions
Signed by artist: "Törneman"
Acquisition
Purchased from artist 1907.
Category
Art Collection -> Paintings
Display Status
Not on display
Bibliography
Thielska Galleriet. Utkast till katalog över måleri, skulptur, grafik / Draft for catalogue over painting, sculpture, prints, 1929
Söderlund, Göran, Axel Törneman, Stockholm, Millesgården, 1990
Theorell, Anita, Axel Törneman 1880-1925. Pionjär i brytningstid, Stockholm, 2021