The Cleveland Museum of Art
Collection Online as of December 21, 2025
Café in Constantinople
1847
(French, 1823–1895)
Sheet: 40.7 x 29.2 cm (16 x 11 1/2 in.); Image: 38.2 x 25.9 cm (15 1/16 x 10 3/16 in.)
Bequest of Muriel Butkin 2008.381
Location: Not on view
Description
This precise and carefully finished work reflects an unusual technique. Building up the entire area with ink and graphite over white chalk, Bida used a stylus to scratch a comprehensive network of tiny lines, providing highlights and picking out details. For his Orientalist subjects, Bida traveled repeatedly to the Near East-the first time in 1843 when he went to Constantinople and Syria from Venice. Although he closely observed the costumes and people encountered overseas, the decorative arrangements and symmetrical space in this draw-ing exemplify the theatrical aspects of Bida's art.- (Fischer-Kiener Galerie, Paris 1978)
- Foster, Carter E., Sylvain Bellenger, and Patrick Shaw Cable. French Master Drawings from the Collection of Muriel Butkin. [Cleveland, Ohio]: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2001. Referenced: cat. no. 34, p. 78-79, Reproduced: p. 79
- French Master Drawings from the Collection of Muriel Butkin. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 26-October 28, 2001); Dahesh Museum of Art (February 19-May 18, 2002).a. At least since the purchase of the drawing from Galerie Jacques Fischer-Chantal Kiener in 1978, it has been identified as one of the two drawings Bida exhibited in the 1847 Salon: no. "1678 - Café à Constantinople; dessin." (The other, no. 1679, was "Café sur le Bosphore.") The references in the Literature section here are to the Salon drawing. It should be noted that an entry on the artist by Josette Galiègue mentions a "Café à Constantinople" being bought by the French government during Bida's life; see Association Générale des Conservateurs des Collections Publiques de France, Dessins français du XIXe siècle dans les musées de Picardie, exh. cat., Musée Boucher de Perthes, Abbeville et al. (1994), 43. No such drawing, however, is included in the Bida list in the Musée du Louvre et Musée de Versailles, inventaire général des dessins de l'école française (Paris: Réunion des Musées Nationaux, 1933).Possibly Paris Salon of 1847, no. 1678.a
- {{cite web|title=Café in Constantinople|url=false|author=Alexandre Bida|year=1847|access-date=21 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}
Source URL:
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2008.381