This theme, exhibited in numerous European countries, is part of the collection hosted at the Hong Art Museum in Chongqing, China, from November 2023 to March 2024.

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Paris, Spring 1999
A spring morning — one of those Parisian mornings dressed in rain and melancholy. I wandered aimlessly through glistening streets and silent alleys, immersed in the discreet enchantment of a city that never stops whispering stories.
After hours of walking beneath a grey, intimate sky, I arrived in the courtyard of the Louvre. There, under ancient arcades, a café offered shelter and warmth. I went in, drawn by the glow hinted at behind the fogged-up windows.
The place was nearly empty. At the far end of the room, a figure caught my eye: a woman, alone, elegant, sipping her tea beside a large fireplace. On either side of her, two monumental vases seemed to guard her presence. She did not speak, did not move. She was simply there, as if suspended in a time that did not belong to her.
That vision, so intense and perfect in its quiet beauty, captivated me. I took out my notebook and, in less than a minute, sketched her quickly — almost afraid time would dissolve her.
From that fragment, over sixty works were born — variations, reflections, whispers of that moment.
I never met that woman. I don’t know who she was, nor whether she was real or a product of my weary imagination. But from that day on, the Femme au Café du Louvre has inhabited my pictorial universe like a dreamed memory.

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Cardamone Alessandro