A la crémerie (At the Restaurant)

Martha Walter's A la crémerie is a quickly glimpsed scene in a Parisian restaurant, where a couple sits at a table against a wall and three more figures—women wearing the elaborate hats fashionable at the turn of the twentieth century—appear only as sketchy reflections in a large mirror. Cut off by the bottom and left edge of the picture, articles of furniture clutter the space; the casual slice-of-life realism of the image is carried into such details as a bouquet of red flowers wrapped in white paper, its ends just off the couple's table, and the abandoned objects on the table at left. The two diners have paused in their conversation, the man's averted face partly obscured by his jauntily angled hat and the woman leaning her chin on her hand as she gazes past her companion to the world beyond the boundaries of the image. Against the cream tones of the wall and furniture and the dramatic darks of the figures' clothing, the red bouquet and the touches of pink and light blue in the women's hats strike a cheerful note. Evidently painted rapidly on site rather than in the studio according to traditional practice, this small work is roughly painted as if sketched directly from the subject without the artist's editing or conscious composition.

Walter was a member of the sizeable expatriate artists' community in Paris when she recorded this everyday scene. The vibrant life of Parisian cafés and crémeries (small restaurants serving morning meals), where the border between private and public life dissolved, had long enchanted visiting Americans, as demonstrated in works by Willard Metcalf (TF1992.10), Richard E. Miller (TF1999.97), and Robert Henri (TF1992.171, TF1999.70). Such settings were not only quintessentially French but emblematized modern urban experience. Walter's cropped forms and rough, rapid technique mimic the randomness and accidental social juxtapositions of urban life, from which the viewer is invited to construct a narrative interpretation the artist herself avoids imposing.

The scene evidently records Walter's personal experience as well. According to an inscription on the back of the canvas, the three women reflected in the mirror are the artist herself and two fellow painters, Missouri-born teacher and artist Alice Murphy (1871–1909?) and Alice Schille (1869–1955) from Columbus, Ohio, Walter's friend from their student days in New York. Schille and Murphy may have been among the American women painters who shared Walter's studio space in Paris, and Walter and Schille traveled together in the 1910s, when each divided her year between teaching in the United States and painting excursions in Europe. A la crémerie hints at the freedom Paris represented for such expatriate, female artists, for whom life at home in the United States was defined by both artistic and gender constraints.

[possibly exhibited] Twenty-first Annual Exhibition of Paintings & Sculpture, The Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois, October 20–November 29, 1908, no. 305 (perhaps as A la Crémerie, Paris).

[possibly exhibited] One hundred fifth Annual Exhibition, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, January 23–March 20, 1910, no. 322 (perhaps as La Cremerie: Paris).

A Proud Heritage: Two Centuries of American Art, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, April 21–June 21, 1987. [exh. cat.]

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American Artists and the Paris Experience, 1880–1910, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, November 22, 1997–March 8, 1998.

Giverny: une impression américaine (Giverny, An American Impression), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venue: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, April 1–November 1, 1998.

Ville et campagne: les artistes américains, 1870–1920 (The City and the Country: American Perspectives, 1870–1920), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venues: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, April 1–July 15, 1999; Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, December 10, 1999–May 7, 2000 (in modified form). [exh. cat.]

Collection Cameo, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, July 2001.

(Re)Presenting Women, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, October 16, 2001–January 13, 2002.

Paris and the American Woman, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, January 19–April 14, 2002.

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Americans in Paris, 1850–1910, Oklahoma City Museum of Art, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (organizer). Venue: Oklahoma City Museum of Art, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, September 4–November 30, 2003. [exh. cat.]

Le Passage à Paris: les artistes américains en France, 1860–1930 (Passing through Paris: American Artists in France, 1860–1930), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venue: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, April 1–October 31, 2005. [exh. brochure]

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Le Temps des loisirs : peintures américaines (At Leisure: American Paintings), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venue: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, April 1–October 31, 2008.

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Gerdts, William H. et al. Lasting Impressions: American Painters in France, 1865–1915. (exh. cat., Musée d'Art Américain Giverny). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 1992. Text p. 260; pl. 80, p. 261 (color).

Gerdts, William H. et al. Impressions de toujours: les peintres américains en France, 1865–1915. (exh. cat., Musée d'Art Américain Giverny). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 1992. Text p. 260; pl. 80, p. 261 (color).

Cartwright, Derrick R. The City and the Country: American Perspectives, 1870–1920. (exh. cat., Musée d'Art Américain Giverny). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 1999. Text p. 12, 27 (checklist); fig. 3, p. 13 (black & white).

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