A Bar at the Folies-Bergère by Edouard Manet

Courtauld Gallery, London

A Bar at the Folies-Bergère is Édouard Manet’s last and perhaps his greatest masterpiece. Completed a year before he died, the painting is one of the highlights of the Courtauld Gallery in London. This celebrated work first appeared at the Paris Salon of 1882. While it was successfully accepted and exhibited, like Manet’s previous works, it caused a sensation. Critics were baffled by the painting’s famously skewed perspective and the ambiguous moral nature of the barmaid.

The Folies-Bergère had opened only about ten years earlier and was one of the first venues to have the very new and bright electric lighting. It quickly become one of Paris’s most popular entertainment spots and Manet visited regularly with friends. He made many sketches there but the large painting is not simply a scene of Parisian nightlife, but a complex and memorable image of life in a modern city. Today, it is recognized as a masterpiece of modernist art but art historians have debated its exact meaning for well over a century and interpretations still remain open. This ambiguity, however, may well be part of the work’s power as it continues to intrigue viewers.