Hallway, Italian Restaurant

1922

Guy Pène du Bois

Painter, American, 1884 - 1958

A man and woman stand against a wall with dark brown wainscoting and rose-pink wallpaper in this vertical painting. Both people have pale, peachy skin and wear hats that hide their eyes. The man is to our left and wears a brown fedora and a thigh-length, brown coat over a dark suit. He appears to look down at the woman’s body with his head tipped toward us. His right hand, to our left, is in his coat pocket. The woman’s right arm, to our left, overlaps the man’s other arm. The woman is shorter than the man but stands with her shoulder almost touching his arm. Her left arm, to our right, is stretched out and that gloved hand rests on the head of a cane. Shown in profile, the woman looks at the man’s face. She has a delicate nose, and her small red lips are closed. Her shirt has a round collar that lifts off her shoulders. She wears a navy-blue jacket with brick-red piping and a blue, shin-length skirt with a red stripe down the side. Her stockings are sage green, and she wears dark, T-strap shoes. The pink wallpaper behind them is loosely patterned with overlapping olive-green-outlined boxes. The artist signed and dated the lower left corner, “Guy Péne du Bois 22.”
This object’s media is not available for download. Contact us about image usage.

Hallway, Italian Restaurant was one of the most popular works that Guy Pène du Bois painted prior to his departure for France in 1924. It was often reproduced during his lifetime, and he included illustrations of it in a contemporary article and later in his autobiography. Inspired by the realism of The Eight, Pène du Bois often represented people in a commonplace restaurant or café setting. Like his contemporary Edward Hopper, one of Pène du Bois’s favorite themes was an everyday encounter between two people conveyed with subtle nuances of gesture that provide just enough information for the viewer to create a story for the scene. In this case the man and woman seem to be in the process of deciding on their after-dinner plans. Although nothing in the composition suggests an Italian restaurant setting, a 1925 description says that the scene "fairly smells of Italian cooking. A man and woman enter silhouetted against pink wall paper; they are sixth rate urbanites preferring a succulent meal enlivened by a florid orchestra—vulgar but harmless seems to be their label."

Not on view See artworks now on view

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Chester Dale Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 64 x 51 cm (25 3/16 x 20 1/16 in.)
    framed: 80.7 x 68 x 3.2 cm (31 3/4 x 26 3/4 x 1 1/4 in.)

  • Accession

    1963.10.137

More About this Artwork

Scholarly Article:  American Paintings, 1900–1945: Hallway, Italian Restaurant, 1922

This nearly square painting shows an industrial area with buildings, storage silos, a smokestack, and railroad tracks. A mound of brown dirt or other material is in shadow in the lower left corner of the painting. Next to the mound, railroad tracks extend diagonally from the lower center of the painting into the distance to our right. The tracks end at a white building with staggered gray rooflines to our right in the distance. A tall terracotta-red smokestack rises high beyond the white building, smoke pouring out of its top and blending into the clouds above. Just beyond the mound of dirt, piles of white material, perhaps in unseen bins, line the railroad track to our left and lead back to a row ten interconnected, coral-orange silos. The horizon comes about halfway up the painting, and it is lined with a row of long white and gray warehouses. The artist signed and dated the work with brown paint in the lower right corner: “Sheeler 31.”

Scholarly Series:  American Paintings, 1900–1945

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

The artist; (Kraushaar Galleries, New York); sold 26 February 1923 to Chester Dale [1888-1962], New York; bequest 1963 to NGA.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1922

  • A Collection of Paintings by Modern Masters of American and European Art, C.W. Kraushaar Art Galleries, New York, 1922, no. 12.

  • Paintings by Guy Pène du Bois, C.W. Kraushaar Art Galleries, New York, April 1922, no. 5.

1938

  • Paintings by Guy Pène du Bois from 1908 to 1938, C.W. Kraushaar Art Galleries, New York, 1938, no. 15.

1965

  • The Chester Dale Bequest, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1965, unnumbered checklist.

Bibliography

1922

  • Pène du Bois, Guy. "Guy Pène du Bois." International Studio 75 (June 1922): 245, repro.

1925

  • Ely, Catherine Beach. The Modern Tendency in American Painting. New York, 1925: 75, repro.

1931

  • Cortissoz, Royal. Guy Pène du Bois. New York, 1931: 42, repro.

1932

  • Jewell, Edward Alden. "My Choice of Contemporary American Painting." Studio 107 (March 1932): 118, repro.

1940

  • Pène du Bois, Guy. Artists Say the Silliest Things. New York, 1940: 273, repro.

1965

  • Paintings other than French in the Chester Dale Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 55, repro.

1970

  • American Paintings and Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1970: 50, repro.

1980

  • American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1980: 145, repro.

1981

  • Williams, William James. A Heritage of American Paintings from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1981: 214, repro. 215.

1992

  • American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 258, repro.

2004

  • Fahlman, Betsy. Guy Pène du Bois: Painter of Modern Life. New York, 2004: 23-24.

2012

  • Brock, Charles. “George Bellows: An Unfinished Life.” In George Bellows, edited by Charles Brock. Exh. cat. Royal Academy of Arts, London; National Gallery of Art, Washington; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2012-2013. Munich, 2012: 24-25, color fig. 15.

Inscriptions

lower left: Guy Pène du Bois / 22

Wikidata ID

Q20192397

You may be interested in

Loading Results