John Carlos BaezMar 7

Manet's famous painting Un Bar aux Folies-Bergère never appealed to me. But now I realize its genius, and my spine tingles every time I see it.

The perspective looks all wrong. You're staring straight at this barmaid, but her reflection in the mirror is way off to right. Even worse, her reflection is facing a guy who doesn't appear in the main view!

But in 2000, a researcher showed this perspective is actually possible!!! To prove it, he did a photographic reconstruction of this scene. Check it out in my next post.

This blows my mind.

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Show threadJohn Carlos Baez

Here is Malcolm Park's reconstruction of the scene in Manet's painting. How does it work? In fact the woman is viewed not head-on, but from an angle! While the man cannot be seen directly, his reflection is visible!

In my next post, I'll show you a diagram that explains how this works. For more, go here:

https://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/manet_bar/looking_glass.html

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Mar 7 at 5:06pmWeb
Show threadJohn Carlos BaezMar 7

This diagram shows how the perspective works in Manet's famous painting Un bar aux Folies Bergère. We are viewing the woman at an angle, and while the man is outside our field of view, his reflection can be seen.

Astounding! But it's not just a technical feat. It allowed Manet to make a deep point. While the woman is busy serving her customer, she is internally completely detached - perhaps bored, perhaps introspective. She is SPLIT.

To fully understand the painting you also need to know that many of the barmaids at the Folies Bergère also served as prostitutes. Standing behind the oranges, the champagne and a bottle of Bass ale, the woman is just as much a commodity as these other things. But she is coldly detached from her objectification.

The woman in the painting was actually a real person, known as Suzon, who worked at the Folies-Bergère in the early 1880s. For his painting, Manet posed her in his studio.

Before I understood this painting, I wasn't really looking at it - I didn't see it. I didn't even see the green shoes of the trapeze artist. I can often grasp music quite quickly. But paintings often fail to move me until someone explains them.

When Manet came out with this painting in 1882, some critics mocked him for his poor understanding of perspective. Some said he was going senile. It was, in fact, his last major painting. But he was a genius, and he was going... whoosh... over their heads, just like he went over mine.

This diagram was created by Malcolm Park with help from Darren McKimm. For more details go here:

https://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/manet_bar/looking_glass.html

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Show threadÓlafur Jens SigurðssonMar 7
@johncarlosbaez important point here is that in real space, the barmaid and customer are looking past each other. The reflection suggests otherwise.
Show threadAntonio PatriarcaMar 7
@ojs @johncarlosbaez I would in fact say she doesn’t seem to be serving the man. A more plausible version is that she served the man already and she is looking at the next customer, the viewer/painter/photographer.
Show threadJohn Carlos BaezMar 7

@antopatriarca @ojs - It's so thought-provoking!

Here's my impression of the painting. In the reflection she seems to be serving the man. In the direct view, she seems to be facing me. And this adds an excellent extra layer to the overall symbolism. The barmaid is forced to be "two-faced": to be a good barmaid, she has to make every customer feel special, as if she's only serving them.

In *reality*, for this scene to be possible, she must be no longer serving the man, and already facing the next customer (the painter/photographer).

Show threadAntonio PatriarcaMar 7
@johncarlosbaez @ojs yes, I agree. In the painting the mirror seems to be showing a different scene than the non-mirrored part. It is only from the explanation of what we are seeing that the interpretation of the two customers start to appear.
Show threadJencel PanicMar 7
@antopatriarca @johncarlosbaez @ojs I always thought that this is the painter's reflection in the mirror.
Show threadƧƿѦςɛ♏ѦਹѤʞMar 7
@johncarlosbaez @antopatriarca @ojs
Waldy did a nice item on it a few years ago:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ye5kbf2_wdI
#art #Manet #ABarAtFoliesBergère #Suzon
Manet's A Bar at Folies Bergere

YouTube
Show threadJohn Carlos BaezMar 7
@spacemagick @antopatriarca @ojs - coo, I'll check it out. Great thumbnail.
Show threadBill HookerMar 7
@spacemagick @johncarlosbaez @antopatriarca @ojs "Waldy", heh. In our family we call him "Wally the hobbit" and watch anything he makes.
Show threadƧƿѦςɛ♏ѦਹѤʞMar 8
@sennoma @johncarlosbaez @antopatriarca @ojs
Likewise! He's a superb presenter and educator.
(He's "Waldy" because of the "Waldy & Bendy" podcast :-) )
#art
Show threadBill HookerMar 8
@spacemagick @johncarlosbaez @antopatriarca @ojs He and Bendor have a podcast?! Huh. I never listen to podcasts, but that one might be worth an exception.
Show threadƧƿѦςɛ♏ѦਹѤʞMar 8
@sennoma @johncarlosbaez @antopatriarca @ojs
https://zczfilms.com/podcasts/waldy-bendy/
#art #WaldyAndBendy #podcast
Waldy & Bendy's Adventures in Art - ZCZ Films

ZCZ Films
Show threadDavid Mitchell Mar 8

@ojs @johncarlosbaez @antopatriarca

I don’t see it as first customer and second customer, it’s not a functional transaction: I think he’s using this visual perspective to invert real and imaginary. Her inner reality is presented as factual, and the factual is presented as a fiction both literally and figuratively by relegating it to the reflected world.
In ‘reality’ she stands alone in her internal existence - isolated, disconnected - from events around her, offering a “fourth wall” breaking gaze to the viewer, inviting us to truly see her.

Show threadJohn Carlos BaezMar 9
@DavidM_yeg - That's a nice interpretation! A truly great work of art admits multiple interpretations, and this was one of Manet's last paintings. @ojs @antopatriarca
Show threadPlantagoLabsMar 7
@johncarlosbaez It is very interesting, especially that the perspective implies that the scene was seen away from the center of vision, i.e. the observer was watching from the corner of his eyes, implying it was shameful of sorts. At least that is how I interpret the schema with the frame of view not being aligned with the center of vision.
Show threadMike 🇬🇧 🇪🇺Mar 7
@johncarlosbaez
It was this painting and this explanation that hooked me into Art History as a degree subject.
It was part of the Humanities introduction, and we later did the sort of deep dive into the location, the people and the sociology of it later.
There's so much to see and learn from apparently straightforward artworks!
Show threadBashStKidMar 7
@johncarlosbaez Somewhat ironically, our college bar had the full-size Manet behind it, in between mirrored sections.
Show threadJohn Carlos BaezMar 8
@BashStKid - Maybe someone had a wicked sense of humor.
Show threadMr.Mark "The Sharpie King"Mar 7

@johncarlosbaez
I like your point about not quite getting paintings until you know the story.

We recently watched the Caravaggio documentary in a theater and it did this a lot which really blew my mind!

Show threadJohn Carlos BaezMar 8
@markmetz - I haven't seen that. Sounds good!
Show threadMr.Mark "The Sharpie King"Mar 8

@johncarlosbaez
We really enjoyed it, I would recommend seeing it in a theater you can.

https://seventh-art.com/product/caravaggio/

Show threadgauniloneMar 7
@johncarlosbaez for some more fun, compare it to Jeff Wall Picture for Women! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picture_for_Women
Picture for Women - Wikipedia

Show threadJohn Carlos BaezMar 7
@gaunilone - thanks! Interesting.
Show threadTom LoweMar 7
@johncarlosbaez I interpreted it that she is looking straight at us and in the mirror she is looking at the customer therefore we are the customer.
But if the perspective doesn't add up then I guess we are the next customer along.
Show threadJoeMar 7
@johncarlosbaez It's a shame he didn't get a hold of a bottle of Bass: a beer which is still manufactured (and has basically the same label) 120 years after the painting was made
Show threadJohn Carlos BaezMar 7
@hungryjoe - yes, I've had Bass ale and instantly recognized that bottle *as soon as someone pointed it out to me*. (My blindness to what's going on in paintings kind of astounds me.)
Show threadGeoff 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿Mar 7
@johncarlosbaez @hungryjoe The red triangle is also the first registered trademark. The company had somebody wait overnight outside the registration office to ensure they got the first one after the law became applicable.
That painting was used as a case study in my first year undergrad physics, not seen this interpretation before :)