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Cafe Scene
Raphael Soyer
American Art
On View: American Art Galleries, 5th Floor, Witness
Raphael Soyer had a lifelong interest in the daily lives of working-class New Yorkers. His paintings of lone women in the early 1940s suggest the absence of husbands or sweethearts who had been called up to serve in World War II.
Soyer liked to depict the blank expressions of people lost in thought, leaving the meaning of the scene open to the viewer’s own interpretation. Throughout his career, his subjects conveyed a sense of weariness and disquiet—a mood related to the social isolation of modern urban life.
Soyer liked to depict the blank expressions of people lost in thought, leaving the meaning of the scene open to the viewer’s own interpretation. Throughout his career, his subjects conveyed a sense of weariness and disquiet—a mood related to the social isolation of modern urban life.
MEDIUM
Oil on canvas
DATES
ca. 1940
DIMENSIONS
24 x 20in. (61 x 50.8cm)
Frame: 30 1/2 x 26 1/2 x 2 1/4 in. (77.5 x 67.3 x 5.7 cm) (show scale)
SIGNATURE
Lower right: Raphael Soyer
INSCRIPTIONS
on frame, in ink: This painting/ I bought from Raphael / Soyer in 1945 - / Julius Zirinsky / Nov. 30th, 1945
COLLECTIONS
American Art
ACCESSION NUMBER
46.15
CREDIT LINE
Gift of James N. Rosenberg
PROVENANCE
By November 30, 1945, purchased from the artist by Julius Zirinsky; by January 2, 1946, acquired, probably from Julius Zirinsky, by James Naumburg Rosenberg of New York, NY; January 9, 1946, gift of James Naumburg Rosenberg to the Brooklyn Museum.
Provenance FAQ
EXHIBITIONS
MUSEUM LOCATION
This item is on view in American Art Galleries, 5th Floor, Witness
CAPTION
Raphael Soyer (American, born Russia, 1899–1987). Cafe Scene, ca. 1940. Oil on canvas, 24 x 20in. (61 x 50.8cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of James N. Rosenberg, 46.15. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 46.15_SL1.jpg)
IMAGE
overall, 46.15_SL1.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph
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RIGHTS STATEMENT
© Estate of Raphael Soyer
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