Everything about A Bar At The Folies-berg Re totally explained
A Bar at the Folies-Bergère, painted and exhibited at the
Paris Salon in
1882, was the last major work by French painter
Édouard Manet before he died. It depicts a scene in the
Folies Bergère nightclub in
Paris.
The painting is filled with contemporaneous details specific to the Folies-Bergère. The distant pair of green feet in the upper left-hand corner belong to a trapeze artist, who is performing above the restaurant's patrons.
The beer which is depicted would have catered not to the tastes of Parisians, but to those of English tourists, suggesting a British clientèle. Manet has signed his name on the label of the bottle at the bottom left, combining the centuries-old practice of self-promotion in art with something more modern, bordering on the
product placement concept of the late
twentieth century.
But for all its specificity to time and place, it's worth noting that, should the background of this painting indeed be a reflection in a mirror on the wall behind the bar as suggested by some critics, the woman in the reflection would appear directly behind the image of the woman facing forward. Neither are the bottles reflected accurately or in like quantity for it to be a reflection. These details were criticized in the French press when the painting was shown. The assumption is faulty when one considers that the postures of the two women, however, are quite different and the presence of the man to whom the second woman speaks marks the depth of the subject area. Indeed many critics view the faults in the reflection to be fundamental to the painting as they show a double reality and meaning to the work.
The increased use of the new technology of photography began to free artists such as Manet to do more than merely imitate life. At any rate, Manet was confident enough to take liberties with literal transcription for the sake of composition.
The painting has been interpreted as a modern paraphrasing of
Las Meninas by
Diego Velázquez.
Cultural references
The painting
The Bar (1954) by
Australian painter
John Brack, which depicts a comparatively grim
Antipodean bar-room scene, is said to be an ironic reference to
A Bar at the Folies-Bergère.
The painting features a
Bass Pale Ale bottle in the bottom-right corner foreground, Britain's first registered trademark.
Canadian artist
Jeff Wall was inspired by Manet's work and made references to
A Bar at the Folies-Bergère in his own work called "Picture For Women" (1979)
Further Information
Get more info on 'A Bar At The Folies-berg Re'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://a_bar_at_the_folies-berg__re.totallyexplained.com">A Bar at the Folies-Bergère Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
