Robert Lotiron
French, 1886 - 1966Café Near a River, 1923
Not on view
Oil on canvas
Dimensions32 × 39 1/2 in. (81.3 × 100.3 cm)
Gift of the Betty Parsons Foundation, 1985.51
Robert Lotiron painted scenes in and around the city of Paris, as well as in the rural regions of Brittany and Normandy. Café Near a River presents a carefree scene of people lounging at a French café, while a team of rowers drift into view from the painting’s right edge. This image has the spontaneous quality of a casual snapshot, with its horizontal edges abruptly cutting off the figures at the periphery of the scene. Lotiron’s style, although representational, reveals the influence of Cubist principles in its organization, having forms arranged similarly to the characteristic interlocking planes of Cubism.
