A Bar at the Folies-Bergère

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A Bar at the Folies-Bergère

Édouard Manet, 1882

oil on canvas

96 × 130 cm

Courtauld Institute of Art

A Bar at the Folies-Bergère (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, 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 clientele. 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 product placement.

But for all its specificity to time and place, it is worth noting that, should the background indeed be a reflection in a mirror on the wall behind the bar, the girl in the reflection would appear directly behind the image of the girl facing forward. Nor are the bottles reflected accurately or in like quantity. These details were criticised in the French press when the painting was shown.

The increased use of the new technology of photography began to free artists like 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.

[edit] Trivia

The Eddie Murphy film Coming to America (1988) featured a version of A Bar at the Folies-Bergère in which the people in the painting were African.