The Spirit of the Times

Painting in the crowded atmosphere of cafés and concerts, in open air restaurants on the banks of the Seine, in studios, or rooms dominated by a grand piano, painting the human figure in its everyday surroundings, and captured enjoying the social life of the city - playing, singing and dancing.

Five concerts in the Salle des Fêtes will feature the repertoire that was popular between 1870 and 1900: the songs of the boaters along the banks of the Seine; the repertoire of Thérésa, the singer of chansons and operetta, darling of the greatest cafés-concerts in Paris: the Eldorado, the Gaîté, and the Alcazar; the music played in the salon of Nina de Villard (1860-1880) – Manet's Lady with the Fans – where Verlaine, Cros, Mallarmé, Hérédia, Berlioz, Degas and Chabrier were frequent visitors. And not forgetting to take a detour to London, with its streets and beautiful houses so beloved of Tissot, Stevens, Whistler and his friend Fauré, and Offenbach, who wrote sophisticated pastiches of the opera of his time and who was one of the leading figures of the Fête Impériale.

Photo: Gustave Caillebotte,Paris Street, Rainy Day © The Art Institute of Chicago. Photography © The Art Institute of Chicago