French impressionist Edgar Degas earned a fine reputation for himself thanks to his paintings of dancers. But in 1876, he seized on a topic that was “on everyone’s lips” in Europe. And although many talented masters, the artist’s contemporaries, wrote dozens of paintings about this “scourge” of modernity, Degas, as always, created something unique. It seems that there is no center, no edge, no beginning or end - only reality distorted by absinthe. This is one big one, spied on and “torn out” from a random plot.
1. Absinthe was known by several names
When Degas's painting was first exhibited at the third annual winter exhibition in Brighton in 1876, it was entitled "Sketch for a French Café". Later, the painting was renamed “People in a Cafe,” and the common people began to call the painting “Absinthe Drinkers” or “A Glass of Absinthe.” And in 1893 it was renamed Absinthe.
2. The place depicted in the picture is a real cafe in “Paris”
The establishment where the people in the picture are sitting is the Parisian cafe "New Athens". It was a real "hotbed of intellectual bohemia", and in this cafe one could often meet such impressionist artists as Degas, Camille Pissarro and Georges-Pierre Seurat.
3. Degas's painting became a kind of propaganda against absinthe
At the end of the 19th century, absinthe was very popular. But gradually this alcoholic drink began to be banned due to its hallucinogenic effect and “the attacks of aggression it causes.” Absinthe was banned in France and later in the United States, the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland and Austria-Hungary. Degas's painting depicts a sullen woman in a very unsightly state, and in front of her is an easily recognizable drink.
4. The woman in the painting is a famous muse of the Impressionists
In front of the lady in the picture is a filled glass with absinthe, and, apparently, not the first. Yes, the lady is drunk and indifferent to what is happening, her eyes are fixed, her shoulders are lowered, the toes of her elegant shoes “spread” to the sides and are torn off the ground. Degas was posed by the French actress and star of the Folies Bergere cabaret Ellen Andre, who went down in history by posing like this famous impressionists, like Edgar Degas, Edouard Manet and Pierre-Auguste Renoir.
5. The man in the picture is an artist
The man sitting on the right is in no way related in plot to the lady to his right. The man opposite looks sober and tense, his red, bloodshot eyes inexorably proclaim a “hard night.” In front of him is a coffee drink for a hangover - mazagran in a glass glass.
The prototype of this hero was the French portrait painter, painter and engraver Marcelin Deboutin met Degas in Florence in the late 1850s, when Edgar was studying paintings in the Uffizi Gallery. Years later, Deboutin appeared in a painting that became far more famous than any of his own works. His portrait was also painted by Manet in 1875.
6. The painting damaged the reputations of the people depicted in it.
Since the public associated the picture with drunkenness and debauchery, it significantly tarnished the reputation of the people who were depicted in it. After Absinthe was exhibited in London in 1893, rumors began to circulate that Andre - lung woman behavior and is not averse to drinking, and Deboutin is an inveterate alcoholic.
7. Critics simply hated the picture.
After the debut of "Absinthe" in 1876, critics simply inflamed with hatred for this canvas. What kind of reviews did the film receive? She was called disgusting, ugly and only showing negativity. 17 years later, in 1893, when the painting was re-exhibited in England, a flurry of criticism rained down again, and “Absinthe” was considered this time too vulgar.
8. Degas took criticism with humor
When Degas was asked what he thought about criticism of his work, he asked: “Who criticizes? Art critics? What kind of profession is this?”, also adding that “only stupid artists expect a compliment from people who themselves do not know how to create anything.”
9. Degas' painting inspired a literary masterpiece
IN famous novel"The Entrapment" by Emile Zola highlighted the problem of alcoholism among the poor class in Paris. Zola's book was first published in 1877, the year after the writer saw the painting at an exhibition.
10 "Absinthe" gained recognition in the 20th century
Despite a barrage of criticism, Captain Henry Hill, a collector of works by Degas, purchased Absinthe in 1876. Over the next 35 years, the painting passed from one collector to another, until Count Isaac de Camondo bequeathed it to the Louvre in 1911. After the painting entered the collection of such a prestigious museum, the former criticism was forgotten. In 1986, the canvas was transported to the Orsay Museum in Paris, where it remains to this day.
For connoisseurs visual arts It will be interesting to know also.
In the left corner of Pablo Picasso’s painting “The Absinthe Lover,” the mirror frame and the semi-abstract reflections in it are a very important detail, reminiscent of the presence of some other inhabitants of the establishment, scurrying around in front of the heroine’s eyes, while she herself is frozen motionless and does not notice anyone .
Single woman
In early 1901, Pablo Picasso turned to the image of a woman drinking a glass of absinthe, which led him to create a whole series of three works. The first was “Absinthe” (private collection), where Picasso gives a woman of the southern type, most likely not a Parisian, who entered the cafe from a winter street, a somewhat predatory and wary look.
Pablo Picasso
Absinthe
1901
Cardboard, oil. 67.3x52
Private collection
Bridgeman/Fotodom
Her left hand is pressed to her ear (she is listening to something), and with her right hand she places a piece of sugar in a glass of absinthe. The style is intense, betraying familiarity with the art of Vincent van Gogh. In the same year, Picasso again turned to this image, choosing a completely different type of heroine. A woman, this time of a northern type (everyone is drawn to Paris), is shown against a yellow, seemingly electrified background, where the contours of dancing, closely intertwined figures are visible.
Pablo Picasso
Absinthe
1901
Paper, gouache, pastel
State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg
This background scene apparently takes place not in a real cafe, but in the fevered mind of a woman (an absinthe-induced hallucination). Thus, the glass of absinthe in the foreground becomes the key to understanding the plot. However, this composition did not completely satisfy the artist. He had to take one more step to achieve incredible brevity and unexpected pictorial expressiveness. The new composition was undoubtedly associated with “The Café in Arles” by Paul Gauguin, which was then in the gallery of Ambroise Vollard.
An acquaintance with this work reveals several details at once - a blue siphon in the foreground and a brownish-red background of the wall, the hairstyle of a dark-haired woman, plain dark clothes. The picture is unusual in its gesticulation. One hand of the “Absinthe Drinker” supports the chin - this detail is carried over from the previous pastel, and the other convulsively clasps the shoulder, so that the whole figure seems to be squeezed into a ball. The woman is cornered, literally and metaphorically. Physiognomically, she does not resemble the two former “amateurs.” Her face shows toughness and stubbornness. Gesture right hand, clasping the shoulder, Picasso, in all likelihood, borrowed from his Spanish contemporary Santiago Rusiñol, who reproduced a similar gesture in The Morphine Player (1894, Cau Ferrat Museum, Sitges), showing the suffering of a woman going crazy.
1881-1973
Absinthe lover
1901 Top right: Picasso.
In 1901, young Pablo Picasso moved to Paris. Scenes from the life of Parisian cafes have repeatedly served as the subject of images. artists of the XIX centuries, starting with Degas, but with Picasso this theme received a new meaning. It's hard to believe that
"Absinthe Drinker" was created by a 20-year-old artist. The drama of loneliness is shown here with amazing power.
Being an excellent draftsman, Picasso distorted proportions, deformed figures, lengthened arms and fingers, and rounded shoulders. All this was done not for the sake of external effect, but to accurately convey the psychological characteristics of the image.
Approaching the plane of the wall and the table to the viewer, the very color of the picture, expressed in a combination of blue, brown-red, greenish tones, is reminiscent of Gauguin’s painting, the tension is the work of Van Gogh.
It is believed that the work “The Absinthe Lover” opens the so-called. Picasso's "blue" period. At this time, the difficult circumstances of his life were reflected in works in which decadent moods, themes of death, old age, poverty, and loneliness were clearly expressed. During this period, the artist prefers bluish-gray shades. Although color scheme The work “The Absinthe Drinker” has still acquired a cold tone, but it is filled with a piercing sense of personal tragedy.
Title, English: The absinthe drinker.
original name: La buveuse d'absinthe.
Year of ending: 1901.
Dimensions: 73 × 54 cm.
Technique: Oil on canvas.
Location: St. Petersburg, State Hermitage Museum
The painting was painted in 1901, this is the period (1900-1904) when the master traveled a lot along the Barcelona-Paris route before finally moving to France. He works a lot, attends exhibitions, meets new people, including art dealers.
Succumbing to the general mood, the artist, in his works, uses a popular subject at that time - a lonely cafe visitor, who was also approached by the impressionists.
It is worth noting that during this period Picasso does not consider it necessary to depict fun, general joy, happiness, and frivolity. The abandonment of man in this world is the main motive that worries the young Picasso.
“The Absinthe Lover” is a lonely cafe visitor drinking a drink that immerses a person in a world of peculiar fantasies and hallucinations, because at the turn of the century absinthe became a kind of fetish in Paris. Even some mystical and magical properties, encouraging creativity and a new perception of the world.
The impression that the picture makes on the viewer is incredible in its emotional load. There is no narrative here as such, there is only a kind of plot - naked psychological image, and outwardly - this is an angular, tired face, a gloomy, devastated look, nervous hands with which the heroine tries to protect herself from surrounding reality. Her face is concentrated, her gaze seems to be studying something inside herself. But if you look at the picture for a long time, it seems that the woman is looking into the viewer’s soul, carefully studying and thinking about something.
On the lips there is a semblance of a smile, a strange sarcasm expressing doom and fatigue. The woman’s thoughts are far from this table, from this cafe - a haven for people just like her - homeless. Yes, no one needs them in this world. She closed herself off, secluded herself, and only absinthe divides her existence.
The color scheme of the canvas is impressive. Contrast of colors - like contrast life situations. The combination of rich blue and deep burgundy colors gives the canvas an atmosphere of calm, but, at the same time, internal struggle. A black stripe separates the corner of the cafe where the heroine finds herself, or maybe this is a dead end corner?
The painting is characterized by heightened drama, which is expressed in the image of a hypertrophied right hand. The woman seems to be trying to protect herself from everything in this uncomfortable world. Picasso deliberately distorts his arms and fingers, making them excessively long and his shoulders more rounded. These are not external, but rather internal psychological characteristics an image that expresses the amazingly powerful drama of loneliness. The plasticity of the body is constrained, frozen, as if petrified.
The color of the canvas is a combination of green, brown-red, blue tones, the approach of the plane of the table and the wall to the viewer is reminiscent of Gauguin’s manner, the tension of the canvas is similar to the work of Van Gogh.
“The Absinthe Lovers” refers to Picasso’s Blue Period. His paintings are made in cool colors, dominated by bluish-gray and blue shades. The main themes are the theme of loneliness, poverty, old age, death, and decadent moods.
Picasso painted more than one painting on the theme of absinthe. In June 1901, the world saw the “Absinthe Drinker” with a piece of sugar in her hands. In the autumn of the same year, a canvas was created called “Aperitif”, or (according to Kahnweiler’s archive), “Woman with a Glass of Absinthe”. It was this work that Sergei Ivanovich Shchukin bought, and later collected 51 works from around the world in his collection. famous master. After the revolution, its collection was nationalized and distributed to the funds of the Hermitage and the Pushkin Museum.
OLD CUSTOMS
Drinking absinthe became a custom of its own, and one might even say it was a ritual; the French drank one serving, finishing their daily routine and switching to the evening mood; in general, it was an evening meal. It was believed that it improves appetite; it could be called a good strong aperitif with its wormwood property, which stimulated the stomach for appetite. No one drank it during a meal, and it is impossible to combine it with food because of its sharp herbal taste. The time between five and seven o'clock in the evening was called the green hour (“l”heure verte”), and one could even smell its incense on the streets of France. In any case, the drinking time was set for a reason; it kept people from abusing absinthe. If they noticed that a person was abusing, then it was contemptuous and not prestigious. Because absinthe caused alcoholism, they even gave it the name “Absintheism.” Absinthe lovers were ashamed to drink a lot in public, so many ran from one cafe to another.
ABSINTH AND CREATIVE PEOPLE
SALVADOR DALI
Salvador Dali is a genius, a treasure of Spain and world culture, the founder of surrealism. He also loved absinthe, but thank God he didn’t care for it. Here is his propaganda poster related to the drink. Most likely, the poster characterizes Dali’s view during the French colonial wars and that these soldiers were destroyed by absinthe and moths with syphilis.
VINCENT VAN GOGH
great artist Dutch artist Vincent Van Gogh regularly drank absinthe, which contains the component thujone, and its overdose leads to a change in color perception: a person sees everything in yellow tones. Maybe that’s why he highlighted in his paintings great importance yellow color or did he just love the color yellow?
Self-Portrait and “Still Life with Absinthe”.
PICASSO
Spanish artist, founder of Cubism. His personality is so complex that it does not fit into the framework of ordinary ideas. I also loved absinthe.
"The Absinthe Drinker" 1901
EDOUARD MANE
For the fact that Edouard Manet depicted a drunkard, the painting was rejected by the salon, and after that he was criticized for a long time not only for this, but for the fact that in this painting there was an incorrect perspective of the table “The feeling of a flying glass” and the shadows of the figures were not in their place.
EDGAR DEGAS
This picture also caused a lot of criticism. And it was caused by the fact that their image was disgusting. The woman is stooped, with a downcast gaze, her legs are stretched out, and there is absinthe nearby. Men with a tired and turned gaze somewhere into the distance, think about their hangover, and just to the side of him stands a cold, tonic hangover drink “Mazagran” (Water, Cognac, Sugar, Ground Coffee). The drink was invented by the French in 1840 in Algeria, during an ambush from an army of thousands of Algerians, in order to control themselves in such a tense situation. They drank it not through a coffee cup, but through a mulled wine glass, the fact is that where they kept the ambush there was no other glassware, so it became a kind of tradition. And what about the picture, then they gave it to her good feedback, it seems she had the “Morality” of those times of the “Absinthe Times”. The painting is now in the Musee d'Orsay in Paris.
VICTOR OLIVA
The Czech modernist became interested in absinthe in Paris. Notable work Oliva created “Drinking Absinthe” in 1901. The painting can be seen in the cafe “Slavia”. By the way, the film received good reviews from critics. She was not called the personification of drunkenness or drug addiction.
CHARLES CROSS
Charles Cross was a very talented, versatile man. He was an inventor, a poet, and an artist. Known as the inventor of the color camera. I often drank absinthe almost 30 times a day. It was famous in many Parisian absinthe cafes.
PAUL MARIE VERLENE
Poet of Paris, suffered from absintheism. Because of his illness, he beat his wife, shot his girlfriend, and threatened his relatives. He was a contradiction to himself, in one word she was “Addicted”.
ERNEST HEMINGWAY
The poet was an absinthe drinker and drank absinthe even after it was banned in many countries around the world. Did not legally transport absinthe to the United States. “Green Datura”, “Death at Noon”, “For Whom the Bell Tolls” absinthe is found there, but rather in the form of a hero who participates in the works.
ALEISTER CROWLEY
An ardent defender of absinthe. He called absinthe art and in his work he wrote many of his works on this topic. “The Green Goddess” is a famous work where he defends and justifies absinthe. Here is one example: “Separate that part of yourself that “exists” and perceives from the other part that acts and suffers in the external world.”
Although absinthe was popular, great people paid special tribute to it with their creativity, it still did not get along in society. I think it was all because of his narcotic properties that he lost respectability in society and society itself began to accuse him of murder, schizophrenia and alcoholism. Therefore, in our time, this drink is like some kind of old legend, without much popularity than in those centuries. Famous people do not talk about it, no one writes about it, and no one personifies it in their paintings.
Those who coped with absinthe sickness received inspiration - they wrote bestsellers and painted popular paintings. So you can’t call absinthe a bad or a good drink, it depends on the person. Analyzing why it became so popular among creative personalities, I can say one thing. All famous writers and the artists loved something narcotic, intoxicating, something that revealed their imagination for their works. Therefore, absinthe took root well in the 19th century during the “Pathos, Glamour, and secular society"when art was revered as anything other than bohemian.
He's like an unbridled phoenix that crashed and was reborn again,
and of course revived with less thujone content, making it safe to consume. But in Sweden there is a brand “King of spirits. Gold." which contains 100 g per liter, who knows, maybe you can see the green fairy in our time.
TRADITIONAL DRINKING ABSINTH
FRENCH.
This is the only thing The right way use of the Green Fairy. Pour a small portion of the drink (40 ml) into a glass, place a special absinthe spoon on top and a piece of sugar on it. Before drinking absinthe, pour cold water over sugar, ice water until the drink begins to become cloudy, the French call this effect “Louche” (cloudy). Diluted alcohol ceases to retain essential oils and they form an emulsion with water, precipitate and an aroma appears.
CZECH.
Absinthe is poured into a small glass, an absinthe spoon is placed on top, and a piece of sugar soaked in the drink is placed on it. The sugar is set on fire and waited until it caramelizes, that is, melts, turns into caramel and seeps into the absinthe. Then the contents of the glass should be diluted with water to taste and drunk. This method It’s hard to call it classic - it’s most likely a tribute to fashion and modern bar culture.
RUSSIAN.
I don’t know why they call it the Russian way, but that’s what they call it in everyone literary sources. The syrup is prepared in advance: to taste, you need to dilute sugar in water, and then add the resulting syrup to absinthe (again to taste) and drink. You can also set pure absinthe on fire first, then extinguish it and pour it into a glass with syrup.
EXTREME.
This is how absinthe is often served in nightclubs. We will need a rocks glass, that is, a glass with thick straight walls, a cognac glass, a napkin and a straw. Sprite is poured into the rocks glass, and absinthe is poured into the cognac. The cognac glass is placed on the rocks glass, the absinthe is set on fire, after which the cognac needs to be swirled so that the drink and glass are heated evenly. Afterwards, absinthe is poured into the sprite and the rocks glass is covered with a cognac glass - the flame goes out. Before this, you need to prepare a napkin, in the center of which you need to make a hole and thread a short part of the tube through it. After the flame is extinguished, the cognac should be placed upside down on a straw. Drink absinthe with Sprite and breathe in the vapors remaining in the cognac through a straw or vice versa.