L'Absinthe

In a Parisian café on the Place Pigalle, Edgar Degas paints two figures seated at a table: a woman with a glass of absinthe in front of her, and a man with a pipe and hat to her right. Produced around 1875-1876 and also known as The Absinthe Drinker, the work was shown at the second Impressionist exhibition in 1876, where it met harsh criticism. Degas does not idealise the scene. The two figures seem lost in thought and cut off from one another, each in a different mood: she, with drooping shoulders and an unfocused gaze, looks worn out; he regards the space beyond the frame with a sceptical air. Between them lies an empty stretch of surface that heightens the distance separating them.

Absinthe was a strong spirit made with Artemisia absinthium and other herbs, such as green anise. In France at the time it had become so popular that cafés and cabarets advertised the so-called green hour at five in the afternoon, and it became linked with bohemian life. Its consumption was partly blamed for the dullness the painting suggests, and the drink was eventually banned in France and in many other countries. In depicting this withdrawn state, Degas also hints at the social isolation that came with Paris's rapid growth.

The composition shows the artist's interest in perspective and fragmented framing, influences that drew on photography and Japanese art. The foreground table, with a rolled newspaper bearing Degas's signature, acts as a barrier between viewer and sitters. This detached, almost accidental gaze is one of the most recognisable traits of Degas's style.

The reception was hostile. When shown in London in 1893 under the title L'Absinthe, the picture provoked controversy: several critics saw it as an attack on morality and as a warning against absinthe and things French in general. Today it is valued precisely for the opposite reason, for its frankness in showing urban loneliness without explicit moralising.

Painter

Edgar Degas

Date

1875

Medium

oil paint, canvas

Dimensions

920 × 680 cm

Museum

Musée d'Orsay, Paris

Movement

Impressionism

Genre

genre art

Depicts

Café de la Nouvelle Athènes, sitting, bangs, chignon, table, moustache, alcoholism, alcoholic beverage

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