Édouard Manet
(1832 - 1883)

 

Père Lathuille was a restaurant on Avenue de Clichy, not far from the famous Café Guerbois, which Manet frequented. In 1879, he asked the actress Ellen Andrée, who had frequently served as the painter's model, and Louis Gauthier-Lathuille, the owner's son, to pose in the restaurant's garden. Because Andrée failed to show up for a subsequent session, Manet replaced her with Judith French, a relative of the composer Jacques Offenbach. This approach is typical of Manet, who liked to give his paintings the impression of a snapshot, but meticulously staged them. 

The painting has an ambiguous character. At first glance, it appears to depict a love scene between a young man and a somewhat older woman. However, there are good reasons to question this interpretation. For instance, the young man does not appear to be sitting on a chair, but rather crouched next to the woman, and the table is set for only one person. The wine glass the boy is holding likely belongs to the woman. The latter gives a defensive impression, given her stiff, slightly hunched posture. Seen in this light, the painting could also depict a daring attempt at seduction. Some authors even refer to this as a gigolo. 
The waiter in the background also occupies an ambiguous position. He could be watching the scene as a kind of voyeur, but he could just as easily be waiting for the young man to leave the woman alone so he can pour her coffee from the pot in his hand.

https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bij_Père_Lathuille

Chez le Père Lathuille (At the Père Lathuille Restaurant)
1879
Oil on canvas
92 x 112 cm
Musée Des Beaux-Arts de Tournai, Belgium
https://mba.tournai.be/collection/edouard-manet-chez-le-pere-lathuille