A Bar At The Folies-Bergère
painting of a man enjoying a painting by Edouard Manet
G. Boersma
acrylic on masonite
±47 1/4" x 29" or 120 x 74 cm
2025
The man on my painting is enjoying A Bar At The Folies-Bergère by Edouard Manet. This celebrated work is Manet’s last major painting, completed a year before he died and could have been intended as a farewell painting. It represents the bustling interior of one of the most prominent music halls and cabarets of Paris, the Folies-Bergère frequented by Manet.
The painting would have been a startling piece for viewers back in the day in many ways. Not least because it seems to follow the traditional format of portraiture but does not name its subject. Indeed, the barmaid appears as just another item in the enticing array on offer in the foreground: wine, champagne, peppermint liqueur and British Bass beer, with its iconic red triangle logo.
The background shows a fashionable crowd mingling on the balcony, entertained by musical and circus acts below. In the top left, a trapeze artist in green boots adds to the excitement. This animated scene is in fact a reflection in the large gold-framed mirror, which projects it into the viewer’s own space.
Ignoring normal perspective, Manet has shifted the barmaid’s reflection to the right. The bottles on the left are similarly misaligned in the mirror. This play of reflections emphasizes the disorientating atmosphere of the bustling Folies-Bergère. In A Bar at the Folies-Bergère, Manet created a complex, absorbing composition and one of the iconic paintings of modern life.
All the best, Gerard
all auctions and available works
info@gerardboersma.nl
www.gerardboersma.blogspot.com
