Art Appreciation Blog: Post 13: Impressionists in Cafés

"The Green Muse"

My original idea was to do this post in two parts: research café culture in Paris before and after 1870-71 and explore the stories behind some Impressionist paintings depicting café scenes.

It turns out the first part of my idea is not so original; somebody else already did it in the form of a blog: Impressionism and Paris Cafes. In that post, we can learn about the sudden rise in the number of cafes in Paris, about different types for different classes (bohemian and bourgeois), some with bar service and some with waiters, the introduction of mirrors behind the bar, women serving drinks and women entering cafes, and the rise in alcohol consumption. We can also read about cafés becoming discussion forums for artists to explore new ways of expression and freedom.

This leads us to the original "Impressionist café" - Guerbois, where the idea of the first joint independent exhibition was born, establishing it forever as the cradle of modern art.

Café Guerbois, Manet, 1869

Now, let's dive into the second part of my self-imposed task: the stories behind some of the "café paintings".

Since the end of 1863, when Le Figaro published Charles Baudelaire's (1821-1867) essay "The Painter of Modern Life," Impressionists have followed his instructions and braved the unknown. Baudelaire urged painters to observe life around them in an "independent, intense and impartial" way. Modern life is "grand and heroic but also melancholy and fragmentary. Modernity is the transient, the fleeting, the contingent," says Baudelaire.

Au Café, circa1875/7
Edgar Degas (1834-1917)
65.7 x 54.6 cm, oil on canvas
Degas Au Café Cambridge Museum

That is why Degas' Au Café is modern and alive today. Real and truthful, these women have emotions, one deep sadness, the other probably empathy for her friend. The background and foreground are also truthfully painted exactly how our eyes would perceive them, while looking at the ladies - out of focus.

There are many Impressionist paintings with café and cabaret scenes, but I realised they were all painted by only three Impressionists: Eduard Manet, Edgar Degas, and August Renoir. In my mind, Frederic Bazille, (who got killed in 1870 in the Franco-Prussian war, started by France still in its Napoleonic rush) would also be the one to paint café scenes as he was a regular there and loved portraying people. For female painters, operas were proper public outings, and to other Impressionists, outdoor scenes and nature in natural light were more inspiring than people's behaviour.

Dans un café, 1875/6
Edgar Degas (1834-1917)
92 x 68.5 cm, oil on canvas
In the Café Degas Orsay

Manet, Degas, and Renoir had three distinctively different styles and temperaments, reflected in the general 'mood' of their paintings.

Degas's paintings are the 'darkest'; Nobody is smiling. People's eyes are empty, either caused by absinthe alcoholism, poverty, moral defeats, or simply being broken by the horrible times witnessed in Paris. During the Prussian 'siege' (September 1870-January 1871), Parisians were so hungry they were buying rats grouped by weight and price on the street stalls. The rich ate at the restaurant near the zoo, which served animals from the zoo (source: Paris In Ruins, Sebastian Smee).

In this painting above, the woman drinks "green muse" or "green fairy," as absinthe was called (tables have no legs, alluding to absinthe's mind-altering effect). Inspired by this painting and a thorough research on the devastating impact this drink had on women and men's lives in Paris, Emile Zola wrote a novel, "L'assomoir" (The Knockout). The one that made him popular and rich and the one that was adapted for film 6 times so far. Here is the link to the first film, fascinating and silent: L'Assommoir (1908) Drink (Pathé). Zola said his L'assommoir message was simply: "Close the cabarets, open the schools".

Femmes Devant un Café, le Soir, 1877
Edgar Degas (1834-1917)
41 x 60 cm, pastel over print
Femmes devant un café Degas Orsay

Being the most dedicated observer, Degas catches the moment no other painter would: a woman's finger touching her lips, and decides to position it in the very centre of the painting. As the pillars support the roof, her arm supports her head. The lower half of the painting is the interior, and the upper side is the exterior of the scene. Blurry street lights fall on buildings and sidewalks' straight lines, while sharp interior light falls on women's bodies, heads, hats, and chairs' curves. Women, as chairs, are there for some useful purpose, not for fun chatting.

In the Café, 1878 Corner of a Café-Concert, 1878

Eduard Manet (1832-1883) Eduard Manet (1832-1883)

78 x 84 cm, oil on canvas 97.1 x 77.5 cm, oil on canvas

Reinhart Museum left part The National Gallery Manet right part

These two paintings were once one before Manet slashed it in two during his usual questioning and restarting process. They were only exhibited together two times: in 1880 in Marseille and 125 years later (2005) in Winterthur, Switzerland. The 'left' painting is in Switzerland and can never be loaned for exhibitions due to the will of its donor, so in 2005, the National Gallery London agreed to lend its part without the possibility to exhibit them both back in London, as usual agreements between museums go.

A Bar at the Folies-Bergère, 1882

Eduard Manet (1832-1883)

96 x 130 cm, oil on canvas

Manet Courtauld Gallery

Moving on from Degas's' Parisiennes 'miserables', we are faced with Manet's ambiguous and enigmatic subjects, usually looking straight at us with no facial expression, as if asking: "What do you think?". The famous "A Bar at the Folies-Bergère" is exactly that, a visual and mental puzzle for so many decades. Manet's last master piece (painted while he suffered painfully in his final year with neuro-syphilis) is to the envy of all museums kept at Courtauld Gallery in London.

Many essays are written about whether this young woman serves only drinks or is she "serving" something more (based on flowers and oranges positioned near triangles on her dress and a 'parallel" world in the mirror where she seems to be more engaged with a gentleman). Note two white geometrically perfect circles (the right one slightly smaller to deepen perspective) as light reflections in the mirror, making us dizzy while our brain struggles to separate what is in front of us and what is behind her. On the left, I found a study that he did (still not sure if this work is also in the Courtlaud Gallery). In it, we see how he prepared the general composition with proportions, verticals, and horizontals.

Plum Brandy, 1877
Eduard Manet (1832-1883)
73.6 x 50.2 cm, oil on canvas
Plum Manet National Gallery DC

Above, is actress Ellen Andrée painted by Manet as a response to Degas' "Dans un Café", also of Ellen Andrée as the model. She is also the woman in " the left Manet painting "In the Café" and she is the one drinking from the glass in Renoir's "The Luncheon of the Boating Party"! What a star! Let's raise a glass to the real muse de Belle Epoque cafés! 🍷

To finish on a high note, we arrive at Renoir. Unlike Degas and Manet, he was not in Paris during the terrible winter of 1870/71, therefore, we will find his subjects in a drastically different mood. Pretty young people, optimistic and expectant, are painted with vibrant colours and flickering light. He loved portraying people dancing, enjoying their food (usually at the time: oysters, choucroute-sour cabbage, ham, baguette), and smiling in the daylight. To me, his paintings are not just about the 'joie de vivre' but also about love happening or love that will happen right after we walk away from the painting.

Bal du Moulin de la Galette, 1876
August Renoir (1841-1919)
131.5 x 176.5 cm, oil on canvas
Bal du Moulin Musee d'Orsay

Luncheon of the Boating Party, 1880/1
August Renoir (1841-1919)
130.2 x 175.6 cm, oil on canvas
Boating Party Renoir Washington

This post is already too long, so I am finishing with just one unavoidable reference to modern art, the iconic presentation of urban isolation in Edward Hopper's Nighthawks, whose subjects seem like time travellers from Degas' paintings.