Manet enjoyed peopling his pictures with his friends. A bar at the Folies Bergere is no exception. In the balcony is Mery Laurent in the yellow gloves, and Jeanne de Marsy in a yellow dress and black hat. Next to them is Henri Dupray. It is thought that Gaston La Touche - painter, dandy, aesthete -is the man at the bar.
"Manet was a gregarious man, little given to morbid introspection, and one who enjoyed life... the presence of his friends... endows the painting with a very personal and positive aspect."
Novelene Ross, Manet's Bar at the Folies-Bergère And the Myths of Popular Illustration, Bowker, Epping, 1982
