Mastodawn

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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Blake C. Stacey

@johncarlosbaez Fascinating! I instinctively parse the reflection as a different woman---I see two barmaids, working a bar that's an island in the middle of a large room, in an environment that's depersonalizing enough that the barmaids are expected to look alike.