# 3 Edouard Manet "Bar at the Folie Bergere"

It started with a diss.  The elitist salon of Paris and positivist art critics as they were gave the Impressionists this label.  They and in particular the leader of this movement Manet wore the slight like a badge of honour.  Their persistence to their ideal can now be seen as an enduring legacy.  Art loved universally, with the power, (that is if you allow yourself to succumb) to let you see inside your own soul.

This painting was the final piece of work Manet completed, and he worked through discomfort and illness sketching studies for the final piece.  Knowing the cultural context makes this work even more remarkable.  The zeitgeist of this movement clashed with the Parisienne cognoscenti, it's hard to keep the faith with disdain yapping around one's ankles.  Not only did the impressionists commit a cardinal sin by departing form the classical realism - heaven forbid they also painted outdoors and painted the sleazier aspects of life.  (Note separately Manet's "Dejeuner sur L'Herbe" if he had painted it today the title might have quite easily be "Dogging"). Manet did indeed keep the faith and this painting both teases and challenges the viewer.  The puzzle of the incorrect technical application of the principles of mirror reflection; the contrast of the main protagonist barmaid Suzon, her ennui, her gripping the bar edges in a desperate cling to re-establish reality, while all the revellers are dream like in the reflection behind her; the sinister man...ooh! Some people posit that Suzon's expression reflects the hopelessness of social class and her predicament.  Who knows, maybe she just had a cheeky few snorts of absinthe under a blind eye.   The beauty of this painting is that it's down to you to decide, think of it as a scene from a movie, you decide the frames, let it tell you it's story.

Some critics say that Warhol's work echoes Manet's work as he observes more simplistically social irony.  One commonality between them both is certainly product placement.  In Manet's bar their are the clearly recognisable labels of the drinks bottles, the creme de menthe that has not changed and the very distinguishable red triangle of Bass beer.  Trivia alert....this trademark being the first ever entry on the British Trademark Register in 1875! It's easy to forget that Warhol wasn't the first to capture the burgeoning obsession with brands, just goes to show that the roots of label whoring are deeper than we think in time.