Daily Artwork — “A Bar at the Folies-Bergere, Edouard Manet, 1882”

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1882 — A Bar at the Foiles-Bergere. Oil on canvas. Impressionism style. Edouard Manet (1833 – 1883).   Courtauld Institute of Art, London, UK.

“[This painting can] be seen as early twentieth century product placement, with the beers in the foreground on the bar, which are clearly Bass Pale Ale. As England’s first registered trademark, this indicated an English clientele at the bar that night. There has also been much commentary on the composition of the painting, which at first seems to be a mirror image of the girl in the background. Upon closer inspection, however, it is obvious that the placement is incorrect, that it cannot be a mirror image. Other conjectures include that the woman in the foreground is the illustration of what the man in the background is seeing upon approaching the bar.”. (Wikipaintings)

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