3-078-095 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

"Coffee on the Terrace", picture by Duez, in the New Salon, Paris, 1890. Engraving of a painting. 'Ernest Ange Duez stands in the first rank of the "open airists" who combine with it genre subjects...He started in life as a silk-mercer - and it is said stuck steadily to business until he had reached his seven-and-twentieth year...he broke suddenly away from the counting-house, and placed himself under the guidance, first of Pils, the historical painter, and subsequently of Carolus Duran, the portraitist...Manet, the Impressionist, was just then moving the imagination of young French artists, and Duez, although no longer young, caught the contagion, and, strangely enough, it was Manet's influence upon him that commended his work to a public which cared little for his master's work...The honeymoon stage has long since passed away, but something better and more lasting has taken its place. The couple are still united - at their little table in the garden after the morning breakfast - two children add brightness to the scene, while in her easy-couch, protected against wind and sun, "Granny" is listening to the prattle of one who recalls her own early days and the childhood of the son who is now enjoying the happiness of domestic life'. From "Illustrated London News", 1890.