10 Intoxicating Facts About Edgar Degas's ‘L'Absinthe’

[demmiblue]

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. It’s also been called Figures at Cafe and In a Cafe (a title the Musée d’Orsay 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

[Octafish]

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]

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.