Dame, Mme Louise Michel Angloise en andere cafébezoekers 1868 - 1928

Jan Toorop made this sketch of Louise Michel and other café visitors with a graphite pencil. The drawing depicts the French anarchist Louise Michel in the indistinct setting of a cafe. Made in the Netherlands, it offers a glimpse into the fin-de-siècle European intellectual circles where radical political ideas found fertile ground, and reflects the era’s anxieties about social change and class conflict. The sketch is a reminder of the important role cafes played in shaping the intellectual and political landscape of the time. These venues functioned as informal spaces for debate and the exchange of ideas, where activists, artists, and writers could mingle. We can learn more about the social contexts of this drawing by exploring sources from the period, such as newspapers, political pamphlets, and personal letters that evoke the atmosphere of the time.