Abel-Truchet’s scenes, like A L’Opera from 1902, celebrated an elegant evening with the upper crust of French “Belle Epoque” society, bedecked in glorious couture fashion. His works often recorded the bustle and gaiety of the Parisian streets and cafes with their joyous crowds. An early French Impressionist, Abel-Truchet could point to his most successful canvases, which depicted the cafés of Montmartre, Monte Carlo, and Avignon, as well as the canals of Venice. Abel-Truchet was one of the few Impressionists who approached the task of articulating nighttime café scenes.

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In this instance, the artist has richly captured the “Golden Age” of France, a time of significant peace, prosperity, and advancements in medicine, science, technology, and architecture. Similar in subject matter to our painting entitled A L’Opera, which also dates from 1902 and is also by the hand of Abel Truchet, this example is instead a closer upfront “snapshot” of the well-heeled opera crowd from a slightly different angle.

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Abel-Truchet often used a thicker paint application, as well as a richer color palette that more closely resembled the approach of Sorolla. He also would typically employ a modicum of detail to capture the atmosphere, costumes, and stances of the richly festooned scene before him, as in our A L’Opera. The fact that Abel-Truchet used a more flamboyant paint application coupled with the large number of figures he chose to articulate, especially in our example, made his pictures more attractive and valuable.

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Artists like Abel-Truchet captured the fin-de-siècle feel of Paris with all its opulence and hope for an endlessly brighter future which still holds an allure to buyers of this day.