Through the Looking Glass: Bar at the Folies- Bergere by Manet. Your interpretations, please.
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A Bar at the Folies-Bergere. 1881.The Courtauld Gallery. London
“He is a painter, the true painter,who showed us how grand we are in our cravats and polished boots...”
--Charles Baudelaire on Eduoard Manet
“He was greater than we thought.”
--Edgar Degas, at the funeral of Edouard Manet
Her name is Suzon.
She is the mysterious young woman at the bar of the famous circus-nightclub where the trendy monied class could go for their amusement. Her gaze has been declared by several art historians as more enigmatic than the Mona Lisa’s. But her gaze to me is one of being very tired on her job and she would rather not be there...and perhaps a lot more...
There has been much speculation that she is a victim of a very unjust social system that entraps women of lower classes into forced sexual availability for the men she encounters in her job. There is certainly enough suggestion here to believe that narrative, but no narrative should deny her the dignity of what her social class “must” be... and the dignity of her as a young woman in deep thought...perhaps worried about a sick child, or how she can possibly pay the month’s rent or perhaps fending off a demanding boss.
The locket is another mystery and we start to question whether she has a lover, perhaps lost, and is keeping a wisp of his hair. It is set off by the delicate lace collar and corsage that frame her flushed face so beautifully. But its secret -- if there is one -- is not for us to know...
In contrast to her silent gaze, what goes on behind her is gala entertainment and this night’s extravaganza is a circus act. What we see are the legs and feet of a trapeze artist in the upper left of the canvas, who is poised to take off in her swing. The bar’s poster reveals more detail as to where we would be seated in this layout...
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Manet’s bar would be located where the words “prix unique” appear in the bottom foreground of the poster. And you can just barely make out the swinging trapezist in mid air a bit above and to the left of the man’s top hat...
Dominating the top of the painting is a large, beautiful chandelier that the artist has managed to make glitter...one can only imagine being in such a room...we are seeing the mirrored one and the actual one in part above the other woman’s head. This is a huge hall, a pleasure palace full of silk hatted men and beautifully attired women.
In the balcony crowd a woman has her opera glasses at the ready, there is a young waiter costumed in a tricorn hat carrying a large tray of food, while a brightly lit woman in white with elegant tan gloves appears to be watching the show. The young woman tending bar looks at us. Behind her is a mirror. Is she supposed to be the woman whose back is to us and facing the man in a top hat at the extreme right? Or is it another woman -- seen plumper and more animated -- working the other side of the marble table? He seems to be getting into her space and looks rather ominous as he grips his walking stick. Is he stalking her?
“A Bar at the Folies-Bergere” has driven art historians to distraction with speculation about what is going on in this painting and what, if anything, it means. We are led to believe that we are viewing the young female bartender in front of a mirrored image and we are the spectator. But this cannot be because she is not in that image and neither are we. So from the start we are bewildered.
We look for these clues when we see Manet’s oil painted sketch for this work and it looks like we are looking at a very different scene because the model he paints is not Suzon. With her unnaturally yellow hair and weariness she looks older and more disillusioned -- there is no complexity to her that Suzon’s countenance brings.
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Put these these complexities aside for a moment, though. Manet has provided us with little “moments” in this marvelous painting. He has signed and dated it on the label of a bottle of what could be Provencal Bordeaux (the guess of my local wine expert who was thrilled with the picture and based his guess on the shape of the bottle and the wine’s color), there on her right.
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On her left Manet has devised a little still life composition of two flowers in a wine glass, oranges in a footed glass bowl and multi-hued bottles of creme de menthes, champagne, Rose, and English Bass ale. While it is a richly delivered bit of social history, there remains a sadness at the tender effort she was perhaps making with her little arrangement...
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Manet has his own way of making us gasp at the vulnerable, evanescent beauty of flowers...as you can see here, in this depiction of slowly fading blossoms...
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Art historians regard Manet as a bringer of Modernism; if so, Suzon is Modernism’s Madonna with the sad eyes. Maybe we don’t see her mirrored because she is personified as the one who delivers the message to us. It makes you wonder how Magritte, that teller of the modern age early in the next century, would understand Suzon.
“A Bar at the Folies-Bergere” was Manet’s last painting. Suzon may indeed be us, gazing upon that society and what modernism has brought to it . Perhaps his signing the painting on the wine bottle label is his sad realization that his art --indeed, all art -- had become yet another commodity that trades under a label. (A look at just about any day’s Art Section of the New York Times will inform you of the latest news in this development).
Bring your own interpretation to this wonderful painting...it invites your wonderment and your thoughts...
You have to hand it to Manet: he really took it to his own era’s art community with his frankly bold nude, Olympia, the violent scene of Maximilian’s assassination, and a shocking depiction of a man who has just shot himself to death. He delivered some unwelcome messages to his art world about reality in presenting the day in which they and he lived.
Do you have a theory of “A Bar at the Folies-Bergere”?
= new reply since forum marked as read
If women think it is an OK expression, then I will not be shocked or judgmental if I hear it in conversation. (I do still interact with 20-something folk. 
)
BTW - I agree that it's OK not to smile. People used to tell me to smile, and I learned to do so. But, I'm a guy, and I guess I looked angry and scowling.
Any way, culture marches on. Time and tide wait for no man. And all that...
While photographers will take timeless pictures of ordinary people (like the famous ?Dorothea Lange? picture of the Depression-era mother), painters rarely put so much effort into the portrait of an anonymous, interchangable, lower class person - even when that person's face is memorable. They were paid by the rich and tended to paint the rich.
Darn it, now I'm going to pull out all my coffee table books of impressionism and waste an hour.
Both the painting and your descriptions. His work on the glass and bottles just blows me away. I've never seen this one before although I took Art Appreciation in college and have been to many famous museums.
My first thought upon seeing it was that I used to bar-keep and am quite sure I've have that same facial expression more than once. I also know a good bit about the Folies-Bergere and it certainly wasn't fun for everyone.
Thank you for this lovely post. 
I at first saw it as a mirrored image showing her back, but that does not make any sense with the male figure at the right edge.
I like your narrative for it though. It is a beautiful painting.
Glad to see you back. Hope you are better.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellen_Andr%C3%A9e
Suzon does have a resemblance to the woman (Ellen Andree) in Edgar Degas' L'Absinthe.
Manet's Parisienne Study of Ellen Andree (much different, I must say):
Ellen Andree also performed pantomime at the Folies Bergère.
was that someone had killed themselves.
The eyes seem to be drawn upward from the lady in white, to the light, to the legs.
The legs seem to add a 'quiet desperation' to the scene.
Employment options scarce for women then...how long would she keep her position as she ages? Or falls even further down the path from respectability by becoming pregnant from some smooth talker?
If she marries a customer she could be in the audience like the woman in white.
If not, 'the legs' option? 
Sorry for getting all morbid, but it was the first thing connecting in my mind.
Thanks again CT--I really enjoy your posts.
I hope it doesn't sound trite comparing it to my cat, but she had chronic bowel issues and I got a lot of helpful information- things that ultimately helped her symptoms more than the vet did.
I quickly became well versed in newest treatment options, foods and natural supplements, etc. I think it made my veterinarian work a little harder, knowing I was also on the case. Anyway, it seems to be a great place for crowd sourcing info. Google has them too, but usually Yahoo has bigger and more recently active groups.
Recognition device- smart phone? Or I can send you my phone number. 
Feel better my friend!
...a more foreboding, demimondaine scenario; particularly when contemplating the dark images and endless supply of potential customers as they seemed to (menacingly) appear in the mirror, in all of their dark intent and haberdashery:
Then, I looked further and reexamined the perspective and potential social mores of the time...
The conclusion that I came to was one of high society in a typical weekend opera or theater setting, during intermission.
The horseshoe balcony of the Folies Bergere is reflected in the mirror behind Suzon. Not only that, but the opposite side of the balcony also appears to have the same mirror or mirror(s) on its wall, showing reflections ad infinitum of the chandeliers and patrons; which serve to draw you into Manet's interpretation.
My first inclination was to assume that the people in the background were bellied up to the bar. As I considered it further, and from a perspective-first vantage point, I began to realize that the mirror behind Suzon reflected a mirror image of the U-shaped balcony at Folies Bergere, which was the local theater/opera in 1881 France.
Not to be confused with the Moulin Rouge, (a well know debaucherous nightclub,) Folies Bergere was the local opera hall. It consistently catered to a higher class of clientele than did the Moulin Rouge.
If you'll notice, the cleavage in both the final painting and the oil sketch, blur the lines between whether or not the women are displaying skin or fabric. I think Manet meant to confuse the interpretation but if you'll notice, the color of the bosom/bodice on both women is lighter and almost white with implied lace, in comparison to the skin color above the choker/necklace line.
And, yeah, she looks a little bored with her station in life as a worker in the service industry but wouldn't that attitude hold true no matter the century?
I think Manet was intentionally blurring the lines between high society and the demimonde of 1880s Paris.
As a side note, I see Manet's oil sketch as a tip of the hat to Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, a well known artist and famous patron of the Moulin Rouge at that time.
Anyway, what a magnificent puzzle you have chosen to present to the hoi polloi of DU, such as myself...
Thank you, CTyankee, for another excellent and thought provoking art challenge.
TYY
PS--->> For the record, the curiously 'skewed' perspective of Manet's painting has (supposedly) been recreated to show the exact perspective as painted by Manet. Maybe the mirror was at a slight angle?...
Really glad I was able to see this at the Courtauld.
Hope you are feeling better.
