The Bar at the Folies Bergere

Manet

One painting that catches my attention throughout this chapter is the painting that Edouard Manet called “The Bar at the Folies Bergere of 1882.” When analyzing this painting, you notice a young woman working at a bar, with a saddened expression, and a crowded venue going on through the glass mirror. She seems distracted by the job she should be attending to; her face gives an expression as though she’s thinking of something else. Looking at the painting thoroughly, so much life and noise is going on in front of her, she could be hoping to either be the person that might be on her locket that lays on her neck, or hoping that she wasn’t attending to drunk men, that could be possibly giving her inappropriate comments on her beauty. She could be upset on the life she is living, on having to serve others while she has to stand back and watch them enjoy themselves and drink and laugh nonchalantly. She looks unpleased with the remark that the man approaching her with a hat might be saying. She is posed to wear a ridiculous outfit that doesn’t express her personality. And with no regard to her and how she might be feeling, the people displayed in the mirror carry on, while she tends to their wants and needs. This painting tells a lot, and it even relates to modern times, and bars that exist nowadays and the way the women might feel working for a crowd full of drunk, rude men, and having to watch them enjoy their night as your missing out on your own life because of the income you need to make to live.