Created with a light hand and painted in an impasto style, Pippel’s works found a large following after his first exhibitions in Munich around the year 1912. In the subsequent years, he produced an extensive oeuvre that consistently showcased the atmospheric ambience of light. In addition to the scenes created outdoors in full view of the motif, Pippel also devoted himself to interior scenes, focusing on fashionable socialites at dinner parties or musical evenings. In this painting, he brings out the artificial lighting to produce ambient effects, skillfully enhanced by the golden boiseries and large mirrored surfaces of the opulent silhouetted architecture. Pippel thus established his very own genre, which was well received by the upper middle-classes of his time. “Now and again, it feels as if champagne has been added to the colors in his works, the way they sparkle and shimmer and flicker. And there may be some who, standing in front of these pictures, belatedly and for the first time arrive at the full realization of what Impressionism and Impressionist art actually are.” (Richard Braungart, Leipziger Illustrierte Zeitung, n.d., quoted from: Hermann Reiner, (ed.), Otto Pippel, Munich 1948, p. 19). [KT]