Man at Coffee Table

This intimate pen and ink drawing captures a solitary figure at a coffee table, created when Théo Tobiasse was likely still working as a commercial artist in Nice. The 1916 date presents an interesting attribution question, as Tobiasse was born in 1927 in Jaffa—making this either a cataloging error or perhaps a work after an earlier source. The drawing's modest scale and mixed media approach—combining pen and black ink with graphite and touches of white gouache on tan paper—reflects the experimental techniques Tobiasse would later master throughout his career.

The subject of a person at a coffee table resonates with themes of daily life and intimate moments that would become central to Tobiasse's work. Before devoting himself entirely to painting in the 1960s, Tobiasse worked as an advertising graphic designer and tapestry cartoonist, developing the technical precision evident in his draftsmanship. The work's focus on a single figure in a moment of quietude contrasts with the more complex, memory-laden narratives of trains, exodus, and Jewish identity that would dominate his mature paintings from the mid-1960s onward. This drawing represents the kind of direct observational work that formed the foundation of his artistic practice before he began exploring his personal iconography of memory, displacement, and cultural heritage.