Author, Lecturer, Broadcaster & Cultural Arts Expert;
President of Art Collage JANG/J Music/J Art/J Books & Media.
Author of over 40 books published on Amazon, including The Crimson Horror series and The Great and Immortal Painters’ Stories series.
Dedicated to sharing insights into art, culture, literature, and creative expression through writing, lectures, media, and content creation.
Currently, I am introducing
the stories about various artists and their paintings with the title
“Interesting Art Stories”.
The 75th story is “A Bar at
the Folies-Bergère” by Édouard Manet.
Self-Portrait with Palette, Édouard Manet (1878–79)
“A Bar at the Folies-Bergère”is Édouard
Manet's last major painting. Painted in 1882 and exhibited at the Paris Salon
of that year, this painting depicts a scene in the Folies Bergère nightclub in
Paris. The painting belonged to Manet's close friend, composer Emmanuel Chabrier,
hung over his piano and is now in the Courtauld Gallery in London.
The Folies-Bergere (2013)
Courtauld Gallery
The detailed depiction of a modern scene
demonstrates Manet's dedication and commitment to Realism.
Manet used a mirror in this painting and
placed the bartender woman, in the center of the painting, who appears to have
a conversation with a gentleman on the right. However, in 2000, to recreate
this scene as painted by Manet, a photograph taken from the perspective of a
staged reconstruction was shown.
According to this reconstruction, what many
people thought the bartender woman and the gentleman were talking turned out to
be a visual trick. In other words, based on the painter, since this gentleman
must be standing to the left of the painter, outside the painting area, who is
painting in the front, he must be far from the bartender, not standing directly
in front of her.
Also, from the point of view of the observer, this observer
should be standing closer to the bar and to the right than the gentleman in the
painting. This appearance characterizes Manet, who has been criticized by
critics for ignoring perspective, as it is an unusual departure from the
perspective point of view.
The mirror in this painting also appears in
Diego Velázquez's masterpiece "Las Meninas", who was a painter Manet
admired.
Las Meninas, Diego Velázquez (1656)
The bartender woman in the painting is a real
person, known as Suzon, who worked at the Folies-Bergère in the early 1880s.
Other notables include the pair of feet in
green shoes in the upper left-hand corner, which belong to a trapeze artist who
is performing from the restaurant's ceiling.
Also, from the red triangle on the
label on the depicted beer bottles, it can be seen that it is a “Bass Pale
Ale,” and the emphasis on the English beer brand instead of the German beer can
be interpreted as evidence of anti-German sentiment that arose in France after
the Franco-Prussian War.
Currently, I am
introducing the stories about various artists and their paintings with the
title “Interesting
Art Stories”.
The 61st story is “L'Absinthe”by Edgar Degas.
“L'Absinthe” is a painting
by Edgar Degas between 1875 and 1876, and it is in the permanent collection of
the Musée d'Orsay in Paris.
Self-portrait, Edgar Degas (1855)
The original title of the painting
was “Dans un Café” and other early titles were “A sketch of a French Café” and
“Figures at Café”. Then, when the painting was exhibited in London in 1893, the
title was changed to "L'Absinthe," which is now commonly known.
The painting depicts a woman and a
man who appear lethargic and lonely, sitting side by side, drinking a glass of
absinthe. The man in a hat is looking to the right off the edge of the canvas,
while the woman in fashionable dress and hat is staring vacantly downward and a
glass of absinthe is on the table in front of her.
The models in the painting
are Ellen Andrée, an actress who also appears in Édouard Manet's paintings
“Chez le père Lathuille” and “Plum Brandy” and Marcellin Desboutin, a painter
and etcher. The café where they are is the Café de la Nouvelle-Athènes in
Paris.
Ellen Andrée
Chez le Père Lathuille, Édouard Manet (1879)
Plum Brandy, Édouard Manet (1877)
L'Artiste, Portrait of Marcellin Desboutin, Édouard Manet (1875)
Café de le Nouvelle Athènes (before 1900)
When the painting was first shown
in 1876, it was criticized by critics as ugly and disgusting. It was kept in
storage until it was displayed again in 1892, but was again the subject of
derision. The painting was then exhibited again at the Grafton Gallery in
England in 1893, with the title of “L'Absinthe”, where it sparked greater
controversy. English critics considered the people and the absinthe in the
painting as very degraded and uncouth.
The Octagon Gallery at the Grafton Galleries (1893)
Many regarded the painting as a
blow to morality, which was the general view of Victorians such as Sir William Blake
Richmond and Walter Crane when the painting was displayed in London. That
response was typical of the period, revealing Victorian England’s deep
suspicion for the art in France since the early days of the Barbizon School and
desire to find morally uplifting lessons in artworks. Many English critics
viewed the painting as a warning lesson against absinthe and the French.
About the woman depicted in the
painting, novelist George Moore commented as "What a whore!" and
added, "The tale is not a pleasant one, but it is a lesson." However,
in his book “Modern Painting” later, Moore regretted giving a moral lesson to
the painting, arguing that "this painting is merely a work of art and has
nothing to do with drink or sociology".
On every Thursday,
I am introducing the stories about various artists and their paintings with the
title “Interesting
Art Stories”.
The 38th story for
this week is “Le
Déjeuner sur l'herbe” by Édouard Manet.
Édouard Manet
“Le
Déjeuner sur l'herbe” originally titled “Le Bain” is an oil painting by Édouard
Manet on a large canvas (208 cm × 264.5 cm) completed in 1863. This painting
depicts a female nude and a scantily dressed female bather enjoying a picnic
with two fully dressed men in the countryside.
Manet exhibited this painting,
which was rejected by the Salon in 1863, at the Salon des Refusés in the same
year, where the painting provoked a great debate with the public criticism. The
painting is now in the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, and a smaller, earlier version
(89.5 cm x 116.5 cm) is in the Courtauld Gallery in London.
Déjeuner sur l'herbe, Édouard Manet (Courtauld)
Despite the mediocre
subject, Manet deliberately used a large canvas for this paintings, generally
used for historical, religious and mythological subjects.
Manet often used real models
and people he knew for his paintings. The female nude in this painting is
presumed to be Victorine Meurent, the woman who became his favorite and
frequently modeled, who later was the subject of “Olympia.” The man on the
right is believed to be a combination of his two brothers, Eugène and Gustave
Manet, while the other man is believed to be his brother-in-law, Dutch sculptor
Ferdinand Leenhoff.
Portrait of Victorine Meurent, Édouard Manet
Olympia, Édouard Manet
Like many of his works,
including "Olympia," Manet's paintings reflects his study about the
old masters, such as the disposition of figures derived from "The Judgment
of Paris", which is Marcantonio Raimondi's engraving after a drawing by
Raphael.
Judgement of Paris, Marcantonio after Raphael
Scholars also refer to two
works as important precedents of this painting: “The Pastoral Concert” by
Giorgione (or Titian) and “The Tempest” by Giorgione.
“The
Tempest”, featuring a fully dressed man and a nude woman in a rural area,
offers an important precedent for this painting, and “The Pastoral Concert”, featuring
two dressed men seated in a rural setting with two undressed women, is much
more similar to Manet's painting than “The Tempest”. Also, since the “The
Pastoral Concert” is a collection of the Louvre in Paris, it is very likely
that Manet had seen and studied the work.
The Tempest, Giorgione
The Pastoral Concert, Giorgione or Titian
A connection between this
painting and Jean Antoine Watteau’s "La Partie Carrée" was also
argued among scholars. The woman bathing alone in Manet's painting is also very
similar to the woman in Watteau's “La Villageoise”, and the possibility that
Manet adopted her pose in Watteau’s work is more clearly seen in a sketch
before creating this painting.
La Partie Carrée, Antoine Watteau
La Villageoise, Antoine Watteau
There are some works
inspired by this painting as follows:
1. Claude Monet's“Le
Déjeuner sur l'herbe” was inspired by this painting.
Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe, Claude Monet
2. French painter James
Tissot’s“La Partie Carrée” seems to be a non-nude version of this painting.
La Partie carrée, James Tissot
3. Paul Cézanne painted the
same theme in his “Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe”, at the Musée de l'Orangerie in
Paris.
Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe, Paul Cézanne
4. Picasso adopted some of
Manet's techniques, including the development of the nude in the foreground in
“Les Demoiselles d'Avignon.”
Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, Pablo Picasso
5. Paul Gauguin may have
been inspired by this painting in his “Where do we come from? Who are we? Where
are we going?”
Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?, Paul Gauguin
6. German painter Max Ernst
painted a parody version of this painting named “Le Déjeuner sur l'Herbre” in
1944.
Le Déjeuner sur l'Herbre, Max Ernst
7. This painting inspired
1959 film of the same name by Jean Renoir.
Film poster "Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe", Jean Renoir
8. French artist Alain
Jacquet copied this painting in 1964 in his “Déjeuner sur l'herbe.”
Déjeuner sur l'herbe, Alain Jacquet
9. British New Wave band Bow
Wow Wow copied this painting in the cover photo of their albums “See Jungle!
See Jungle! Go Join Your Gang Yeah, City All Over! Go Ape Crazy!” and “The Last
of the Mohicans.”
Album "See Jungle! See Jungle! Go Join Your Gang Yeah, City All Over! Go Ape Crazy!", Bow Wow Wow
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