The Parisian Life | |
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French: Interior d'un Cafi | |
Artist | Juan Luna |
Year | 1892 |
Dimensions | 57 cm × 79 cm (22 in × 31 in) |
Location | National Museum of Fine Arts |
The Parisian Life, also known as Interior d'un Cafi (also spelled Interior d’Un Café, literally meaning "Inside a Café"), is an 1892 oil on canvas impressionist painting by Filipino painter and revolutionary activist Juan Luna. The painting presently owned by the Government Service Insurance System is currently exhibited at the National Museum of Fine Arts after the state pension fund transferred management of its collection to the National Museum in March 2012.
Measuring 57 cm × 79 cm (22 in × 31 in),The Parisian Life is one of the masterpieces that Luna created when he stayed in Paris, France from October 1884 to February 1893. His own personal “Parisian life” was a total of eight years. This period in Luna’s career in painting is known as the post-academic or the Parisian period, a time when his style moved away from having “dark colors of the academic palette” and became “increasingly lighter in color and mood”. As an artist, Luna became renowned on the European continent and became “a familiar of the French and Spanish royal courts”. During the period, apart from his heightening artistry Luna was also participating in the Philippine propaganda movement together with José Rizal, the national hero of the Philippines. Months after painting The Parisian Life, Luna would be departing from Paris to Madrid, Spain then to the Manila, Philippines in 1894 in order to rejoin Rizal and Dr. Ariston Bautista Lin, and perform his role in the Philippine Revolution and war of independence in 1896.