Four Paintings

A Bar at the Folies-Bergère

A Bar at the Folies-Bergère

1881 - 82

Edouard Manet

One of the main subjects of the Bar is desire...Jack Flam, from 'Looking into the Abyss: the Poetics of Manet's A Bar at the Folies-Bergère' in 12 Views of Manet's Bar (Princeton 1996)

The Picture
A Bar at the Folies Bergère has been interpreted and re-interpreted without losing its mystery.

Life
Born into the haute bourgeoisie, Manet was a bohemian and a flaneur, an aesthete and a Naturalist, a dandy and a loving husband. As complicated as his paintings, he is recognised as the first Modern.

The Folies-Bergère
The most famous variety theatre in the world, a synonym for pleasure of every conceivable kind, the Folies-Bergère was the first great blooming of 'Gay Paree'.

Paris
In 1871 Paris was both occupied by a foreign army and then swam with the blood of thousands killed during the ruthless repression of the ill-fated Commune. Within a decade it was preparing for La Belle Époque.

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