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| Accession # | 46.15 |
|---|---|
| Artist | Raphael Soyer |
| Title | Cafe Scene |
| Date | ca. 1940 |
| Medium | Oil on canvas |
| 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) |
| Inscriptions | on frame, in ink: This painting/ I bought from Raphael / Soyer in 1945 - / Julius Zirinsky / Nov. 30th, 1945 |
| Signed | Lower right: Raphael Soyer |
| Credit Line | Gift of James N. Rosenberg |
| Location | American Identities: Modern Life |
Curatorial Remarks: 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.
