Can you help me locate a painting I don't know the name of? Using my poor description alone?

Factual Questions
1

Thanks, I appreciate your help (and your optimism!)

For years I’ve been trying to identify a painting I once saw. I have tried and tried to locate it, done a zillion Google image searches, pored over on-line galleries, and still come out empty-handed and frustrated.

Here’s what I know/remember about the painting:

Era/Style - almost certainly French, impressionist, ca. 1880

Looks like - something by Caillebotte but I don’t think it’s actually him. Manet is also a possibility, but, again, I don’t think it’s him.

General Description - an interior of perhaps a theatre or opera, a number of people, well-dressed upper class gentlemen of the era, some men with top hats (that’s critical) on or close to a staircase (almost for sure), with some Greek-type columns near them (for sure). In fact, what struck me about the painting at the time was how the men’s top hats and the columns seemed to be in movement together, or flowing, as if they were linked in some way; as if they were parts of some inanimate ballet.

I’m somewhat less confident about the following:

  • the viewer’s perspective is from above ground level (possibly from the same level as one of the landings on the staircase)
  • prominent deep blues and golds
  • there were two gentlemen going down the staircase, with the staircase a bit to the left on the painting
  • that it actually is an interior of some 19th opera hall (although it may simply be a posh restaurant of the time)

So there you have it. Thanks for trying, I really do appreciate your help!

2

Not the Night Watch, is it?

3

Alas, that’s not it.

I’m 100% certain the one I’m thinking about is late 19th century, and almost as certain it’s by a French impressionist (along the lines of Manet).

Thanks for looking.

4

Could it be At the Moulin Rouge: The Dance by Toulouse-Lautrec?[URL=“http://www.1st-art-gallery.com/Henri-De-Toulouse-Lautrec/Henri-De-Toulouse-Lautrec-oil-paintings.html”]

5

No, but it sure does have common elements with the one I have in mind. That being said, “mine” is definitely not Lautrec-like. Indeed, it’s much more along the lines of Caillebotte or even Degas (IIRC).

6

My first thoughts were:

Edgar Degas, “Cafe Concert at Les Ambassadeurs”

and Georges Seurat, “The Can-Can”

Are any of those close?
(By the way, I’m a huge lurker and rarely post, but I just took a class on 19th century French art and I love a challenge. :))

7

Would you say the painting is in the more realist or less realist end of the Impressionist spectrum? The impressionist painters were a mixed bag, and each of them varied considerably in style over the course of a career.

8

If you search “opera” at this site does anything float your boat?

I looked and didn’t find anything matching but I am not inside your head. (or am I?!)

9

No, but I appreciate your interest.

An important question that I should have anticipated. The painting I’m thinking of is definitely to the realist end. It’s not dissimilar from this Beraud work(but is more vibrant as I recall, with more gold and blue especially). It might well be Beraud, but I sure can’t find it.

And, Zipper, I’ll get back to ya shortly.

10

Do you remember where you saw it?

11

The Lobby of the Paris Opera by Jean Béraud?
It’s got blues and golds, top hats, stairs and columns, but it’s not quite how I pictured it from your description…

12

Possibly in New York at the Metropolitan, or maybe even in Toronto. I apologize, I just don’t remember.

It’s got the right things, but a VERY different look and feel.

I will play with Zipper’s link when I get home. It looks very promising. But, must leave for at least an hour now.

Thanks to all! I am much obliged!

13

When you said “what struck me about the painting at the time was how the men’s top hats and the columns seemed to be in movement together, or flowing”, is this what you meant? No staircase, though, nor much blue and gold.

14

I’ve really been racking my brain about this in the last couple hours. So, for those still playing, I can add/clarify the following:

The staircase I keep mentioning is not ‘grand’. That is, it’s not depicted as being particularly high, imposing, ornate, etc. Still, I think it’s a focal point of the painting if for no other reason than the gentlemen on it (?descending it) appear closer to the viewer than any other people in the painting. Although I am definitely not sure about it, I think those two men look to be 10 to 20 feet away from the viewer’s eye.

My repeated assertion that blue and gold are prominent in the piece should be taken with a grain of salt.

Likewise, although I keep thinking it was set in an opera hall (or something similar), that’s also nowhere near certain. It could easily have been a theatre, a concert hall, a restaurant (of the times), or even a generic ‘hall’ (i.e. some grand building in 19th century Europe).

Oh, I think the reason I can’t remember where I saw it is that I may well have encountered it on a poster.

The great link that Zipper JJ suggested has, so far, not coughed it up. However, I did find this there - a painting by Beraud which, although a street scene and not an interior like the painting I’m trying to remember, still captures the era, type of people, and style quite well.

Please let me know if you have any ideas. Thanks!

ETA: I just realized I never answered Colophon’s last post. Unfortunately, that’s not it either. But definitely the right era and not a totally dissimilar style. See the Baroud above for a clearer illustration of the style.

15

How about this one?

16

Excellent try. It really fits my description, doesn’t it? Yet, that’s not it. Damn! Mine has much less gold and, IIRC, at least some of the people appear to be much closer to the viewer.

I know it exists. In fact, once, many years ago, maybe 2000, I did find it on line. Thinking it would be easy to find it again, I neither bookmarked or saved the image. Fool! :smack:

17

Might it be something by James Tissot? The closest I could find is At the Louvre, but it doesn’t seem to correspond with the color palette that you’ve described.

18

I was going to put forward this one which is coming to the AGO’s Drama and Desire this year, but it doesn’t meet your top-hat requirement. At any rate, it’s still going to be worth seeing! If memory serves, you’re in Markham or something, yes?

19

Or this one?

20

If you don’t find it at ArtSunlight, you might have to rethink whether it exists! I’d advise just listing the artists you think it might be and working your way through their oeuvre: the paintings for each artist seem to be arranged more or less by subject category, so it shouldn’t be that daunting.