In August 1877, Edouard Manet began work on a large picture of the Brasserie de Reichshoffen in Paris, where he was fascinated by the skill of the waitresses. While working on the picture, he radically altered his plans and cut the canvas in two, completing each half separately. The right-hand side of the painting in the National Gallery, shows a waitress delivering a beer to a table while the left half shows a man and two women sitting at the other side of the table. Titled Au Café, that painting is in the Oskar Reinhart Collection 'Am Römerholz,' Winterthur, Switzerland. 

This May, both paintings will be reunited at the National Gallery and will be displayed in Room 41. To mark the occasion, Christopher Riopelle, Curator of Post-1800 Paintings will be in discussion with the director of the Oskar Reinhart Collection, Kerstin Richter, and its Deputy Director, Katja Baumhoff.

Elizabeth and Daniel Peltz OBE