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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums10 Intoxicating Facts About Edgar Degas's ‘L'Absinthe’
Source: Mental Floss
1. L'ABSINTHE HAS BEEN KNOWN BY SEVERAL NAMES.
When it was first exhibited in the Third Annual Winter Exhibition in Brighton, it was called A Sketch in a French Cafe. Its also been called Figures at Cafe and In a Cafe (a title the Musée dOrsay still prefers). Later, The Absinthe Drinkers and Glass of Absinthe became popular alternatives. But its most frequently-used moniker fell into place when it was exhibited in London, 17 years after its completion.
2. ITS SETTING WAS A POPULAR ARTIST HANGOUT.
The restaurant depicted in L'Absinthe has been identified as Paris's Café de la Nouvelle Athènes. It was a "hotbed of intellectual bohemians" where Impressionist painters like Degas, Camille Pissarro, and Georges Seurat were known to roam.
3. L'ABSINTHE WAS SEEN AS ANTI-ABSINTHE PROPAGANDA.
In the late 19th century, absinthe was growing in popularity. But public sentiment shifted against the high-proof liquor, spurring its ban in France as well as in the United States, the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, and Austria-Hungary by 1915. Because Degas's painting depicted a sullen woman with the identifiable beverage before her, anti-absinthe advocates embraced L'Absinthe as an illustration of the isolation and misery the spirit could bring.
4. L'ABSTINTHE'S LADY WAS A FAMOUS IMPRESSIONIST MUSE.
French ingénue Ellen Andrée worked in Naturalist theater when she wasn't posing for the likes of Degas, Édouard Manet, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Besides L'Absinthe, Andrée can be spotted in Renoir's Luncheon of the Boating Party, Manet's The Plum, and Henri Gervex's Rolla.
More: http://mentalfloss.com/article/69281/10-intoxicating-facts-about-edgar-degass-labsinthe
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10 Intoxicating Facts About Edgar Degas's ‘L'Absinthe’ (Original Post)
demmiblue
Oct 2015
OP
Octafish
(55,745 posts)1. Her eyes...
...and lower lip, where a drop of light illuminates the droop of the smashed*.
* from the "Takes One To Know One Department"
closeupready
(29,503 posts)2. Although I've never liked Degas' works much, this one is fascinating
in that considering it's oil on canvas, the figures are so lifelike - the faces, eyes, and posture seem alive. THAT is genius, IMO.