The Realist art movement culminated with the social and political changes sweeping over Paris
to give rise to the Impressionist movement in the 19th century. The changes in the social scenario
were incorporated in art via this movement. The subject matter for Impressionist art was drawn
from real-life images and outdoors, and was no longer confined to studios. The art form was
characterized by its emphasis on the effects of the changing qualities of light as well as
movement rather than still life. This paper aims to examine the great works of art- Gustave
Caillebotte’s Paris: A Rainy Day, Edgar Degas’s The Absinthe Drinker and Edouard Manet’s
The Bar at the Folies Bergere from the Impressionist viewpoint and analyze them with context
to the erstwhile socio-political scenario.
Gustave Caillebotte’s Paris: A Rainy Day is an oil painting drawn in 1877 encompasses the
Impressionist use of landscape scene. The masterpiece captures a view of the bourgeois life on a
rain-drenched sidewalk on an intersection near Gare Saint- Lazare. The central figures in the
painting are drawn at the right foreground- a fashionably dressed couple with a black umbrella
looking pointedly away from a half-drawn man, again bearing an umbrella walking towards the
couple.
The painting is set in the erstwhile ultra-modern Paris built by Baron Haussmann on the orders of
Napoleon III. The stated aim of improving the living condition of the citizen of the Paris was a
veil for the bourgeois takeover of Paris and suppression of urban radicalism among the lower
middle class. The huge buildings drawn in the painting are the residence of the bourgeois built
by Napoleon III. Created six years after the repression of the commune, this painting depicts
bourgeois conformity. In the background are identically dressed people with the same black
umbrellas and the same buildings, the products of industrial capitalism.
However, a closer examination reveals the presence of working class people, umbrella-less and
exposed to the elements of weather- the carriage driver on the left, another in front of the
massive building in the middle background, a umbrella less man walking across the street in near
the same building, a workman carrying a ladder across the street half-concealed by the umbrella
of a women in the backdrop of the bourgeois couple in the right foreground. Their forms are
inconspicuous, and hidden behind the bourgeois.
Another aspect of this painting is its perspective – the foreground seems to tilt towards the
viewer whereas the background dissolves in haziness. Also, we are simultaneously drawn in two
directions – left and right along the streets near the building in the middle background. Unusual
as it seems, the central part of the painting appears inconspicuously vacant, though it is hard to
put a finger on what is missing in context with socio-political scenario. “There is an emptiness at
the centre of things that the bourgeois can neither fill nor conceal” (Brian O. Bard,
www.sites.google.com/sites/beautyandterror)
All in all, the painting is a beautiful and meaningful depiction of the 19th century Paris and
parallels can be drawn from the painting to the then political and social scenario. The painting is
best described by the curator of the Art Institute of Chicago, Gloria Groom who was quoted by
Hedy Weiss as “the great picture of urban life in the late 19th century” in the Chicago Sun-Times
(December 12, 1995).
Edgar Degas’s The Absinthe Drinker (also known as L’Absinthe), depicts a scene at a Parisian
café in Paris. This oil painting makes use of vivid colors and bold brushstrokes and effect of
light, characteristics of the Impressionist technique. In the painting, a woman sits looking dully
at the glass of absinthe in front of her. Beside her, to the right of the painting sits a man staring to
the right. Ellen Andree, an actress is the woman in the painting, while the man is Marcellin
Desboutin, an artist as well as bohemian character.
In the later half of the nineteenth century, it was not uncommon to see working class people and
intellectuals drowning their sorrows in absinthe, better known as the green fairy. In the painting,
the central figure i.e. the woman sits off-centre to the right, seemingly under the influence of
absinthe. A glass filled with the liquid sits in front of her. Her arms slumped by her sides, and the
wispy faraway look in her eyes depict her weariness and desolation. The disheveled man beside
her looks out of the picture to the right. Though they share the same table, they appear to be
strangers to each other. The man has no interest in the woman beside him. By his right arm is a
glass filled with brown liquid, which is assumed to be a cure for hangover.
One of raging issues at that time was the social degradation caused by absinthe. The drink-drug
was held responsible for alcoholism, social instability and degradation. However, Degas assumes
the role of an unbiased observer. He neither promotes absinthe drinking nor does he condemn
absinthe drinking. He just depicts a common scene in a Parisian café at that point of time.
However, L’Absinthe has often by viewed by English critics as a lesson against absinthe. The
painting also gives a glimpse of the social segregation in Paris during its years of rapid
development.
A Bar at the Folies Bergere by Edouard Manet is a scene from the Folies Bergere club in Paris.
The painting is filled with features specific the restaurant. Focused at the centre of the painting is
the barmaid Suzon (who was existed in reality) who appears wrapped in her own thoughts,
isolated from the rest of the world and behind her a mirror hazily reflects the happenings in the
restaurant. A customer drawn at the bar with this back to the balcony is where Manet puts his
viewers. The pair of green feet shown at the top left corner of the painting belongs to a trapeze
artist performing in the club for the people in the balcony. The balcony is filled with people in
black hats, implying clientele to be belonging to the bourgeois class. Crystal chandelier and
electric light reflected by another mirror are shown in the reflection in the mirror behind the bar
maid, creating an illusion of deep space.
Critics have oft pointed out discrepancies between the mirror reflection and foreground reality.
For instance, the image of Suzon instead of appearing directly behind her in the mirror is shifted
to the right. However, they have also been assumed by some others to be deliberate. Jonathen
Jones wrote in The Guardian on October 21, 2000 “The dislocation of Suzon's world is
deliberate. Paris is a hall of mirrors where Suzon floats helplessly, clinging to her bar” (Jonathan
Jones, 2000, The Guardian). Thus Manet succeeds in drawing a fascinating piece of art that
provokes us to examine what is underneath the surface of appearances and very beautifully
depicts alienation in modern life.
Just like The Absinthe Drinker and Paris: A Rainy Day, the theme for this art work is also drawn
from the urban Paris life in the 19th century, encompassing the Impressionist doctrine of
paintings drawn out of the studio. However, each painting depicts a different aspect of the life in
Paris. While Gustave Caillebote depicts a flaneur’s view of outdoors life in Paris where
everything is seemingly bourgeois, The Absinthe Drinker captures a view of the lower middle
class life within a café. The subject of Manet’s work is an intermingling of the two, a slice of
bourgeois life but within a bar. While parallels can be drawn from Gustave Caillebotte’s work to
the political scenario in Paris, the other two works feature the social life of the Parisians and
bourgeois in Paris. With reference to the central figures, Gustave Caillebotte’s and Edgar
Degar’s works set the central figures off centre and both towards the right while in A Bar at
Folies-Bergere, the central figure-Suzon appears right at the centre of the painting. In Paris: A
Rainy Day, the outlines of the figures in the foreground are distinct and those in the background
are indistinct. However, in L’Absinthe and A Bar at Folies-Bergere, the outlines of all figures are
hazy and indistinct. The three artworks share a similarity in context to their themes- all the three
depict the social isolation in Paris in the late 19th century.
References1. Gustave Caillebotte's Paris Street; Rainy Day, 1876-77, retrieved on May 29,2009 from
http://www.artic.edu/artexplorer/search.php?tab=2&resource=364
2. Gustave Caillebotte's Paris Street; Rainy Day, 1877 retrieved on May 29,2009 from
http://sites.google.com/site/beautyandterror/Home/bourgeoisie-and-proletariat
3. Role of Parisian Café in Emergence of Modern Art: An analysis of the nineteenth century
café as a social institution and symbol of modern life, retrieved on May 29,2009 from
http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-0903102-153114/unrestricted/Dees_thesis.pdf
4. L’ Absinthe-Degas, retrieved on May 22,2009 from http://labsinthedegas.blogspot.com/
5. A Bar at the Folies-Bergere, Edouard Manet (1882), retrieved on May 29,2009 from
http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2000/oct/21/art
6. Edouard Manet, A Bar at the Folies-Bergere, retrieved on May 22, 2009 from
http://sites.google.com/site/beautyandterror/Home/capitalism-and-the-death