A Bar at the Folies-Bergère
- Artist: Édouard Manet
- Date: 1882
- Museum: The Courtauld Gallery
- Collection record: The Courtauld Gallery website
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About this artwork
This is the painting "A Bar at the Folies-Bergère" by Édouard Manet. Completed in 1882, it’s his final major canvas and was finished a year before his death. The scene is set inside the lively Folies‑Bergère, a popular Parisian music hall. In the foreground, a barmaid named Suzon sits poised, her expression inscrutable as she seems to lock eyes with a gentleman at the counter. Behind her, a large gold‑framed mirror reflects the bustling room—wine bottles, champagne, and a British Bass beer with its red triangle logo—yet Manet plays tricks on perspective: the mirror’s contents are shifted to the right, and the bottles on the left are misaligned, creating a subtle disorientation. Up the balcony, a fashionable crowd mingles while the legs and green boots of a trapeze artist hint at the circus acts that entertained the audience. The mirror essentially transports that lively background into the viewer’s own space, blurring the line between scene and observer. Manet’s clever use of reflection, light, and composition turns this simple bar setting into a complex snapshot of modern urban life, a hallmark of his contribution to contemporary art.
See it in person
A Bar at the Folies-Bergère hangs in The Courtauld Gallery at Somerset House, London. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
