The information that the wormwood drink inspired the great creators to create great paintings is always at the forefront of the list of facts about absinthe. Vincent van Gogh, Edouard Manet, Pablo Picasso, Edgar Degas and Victor Oliva are among the five most famous absinthe drinkers. Their canvases depicting absinthe are among the masterpieces of world art.

"Still life with absinthe"

In 1887, the genius and absintheist Toulouse-Lautrec created a portrait of another genius and no less famous admirer of Van Gogh's Green Fairy drink. In the same year, Vincent van Gogh himself immortalized on canvas a decanter of water and a glass of greenish-yellow liquid, which gave the creator an unusual vision of the world in yellow terrified by hallucinations. Absinthe destroyed the consciousness of Van Gogh, but the more he felt broken and sick, the more, according to him, he became an artist.

Edouard Manet,
"Absinthe Drinker"

For the glorification of the image of the moral fall of man, Edouard Manet was scolded by everyone - from Couture to Baudelaire. The painting "Absinthe Drinker" was not perceived as the artist expected.

"Absinthe Drinker"

Picasso has more than one painting dedicated to absinthe. In June 1901, the genius demonstrated his “Absinthe Drinker” to connoisseurs of beauty. Unlike the canvases of other artists who knew a lot about absinthe, Picasso's lady drinks a wormwood drink with sugar, and not just diluting it with water. In the autumn of 1901, Pablo Picasso continues the absinthe theme and creates another "Absinthe Drinker" (the second name of the painting is "Aperitif"). This painting is kept in the Hermitage.

"Absinthe"

A glass of absinthe is in front of the actress, cabaret star Ellen Andre. A glass of hangover cure in front of the artist Marcelin Debutin. Degas's painting caused a flurry of negative responses, contemporaries of the great artist saw vulgarity and immorality in the canvas. The painting is now in the Musée d'Orsay in Paris.

"Drinking Absinthe"

The Czech modernist became addicted to absinthe in Paris. Oliva created his most famous painting, Drinking Absinthe, in 1901. Nowadays, a picture with a sweetly communicating gentleman and the Green Fairy can be seen in Prague, in the Slavia cafe.

Many myths go around this alcoholic drink. He is credited with mystical properties, people use it with pleasure creative professions and draw their inspiration from it. Among the lovers of absinthe were such famous people How Ernest Hemingway, Pablo Picasso, Guy de Maupassant, Vincent van Gogh and others .What is so attractive about this strong alcoholic drink with the scent of wormwood?

What is absinthe?

First, let's find out what absinthe is. A translation of a word absinthe With French- "wormwood". This drink incorporates a variety of herbs, including bitter wormwood, fennel, calamus, lemon balm, mint, etc. IN total Absinthe contains about 30 different herbs.

The strength of absinthe varies in the region of 55-85 degrees. Usually it is 70 degrees. But when consumed internally, it is usually bred to the optimum strength. Essential oils wormwood is rich in substance thujone , which determines the main properties of absinthe. In very large doses, thujone has the properties of the strongest poison, and in small doses it causes a laughing effect, in some cases even hallucinations. The color of the drink varies from clear or yellow to blood red and emerald green.

How and where did absinthe originate?

This drink is crazy famous artists and writers, was born in western Switzerland. Madame Enrio came up with medicinal tincture from wormwood, which aroused the interest of the French doctor Pierre Ordiner. He was just studying useful properties wild wormwood. Having added some herbs to the tincture, the doctor began to give the drink to his patients. When Madame Enrio passed away, her daughters sold the tincture recipe to a French major. Dubier , who first organized an industrial enterprise for the production and distribution of absinthe.

Modern absinthe differs significantly from the drink that drove the Parisian intelligentsia of the 18th century into a state of ecstasy. If that absinthe called "Green fairy" , could give inspiration and heal from diseases, then his modern analogue hardly capable of it. Although some bona fide manufacturers do not contribute big adjustments into the recipe of the drink, and it can be assumed that this is about the same drink that inspired Van Gogh and Picasso to create their masterpieces.

Absinthe in the works of famous artists

Perhaps the most ardent admirer of absinthe among was Vincent Van Gogh. No one knows for sure how long he drank this drink. But it is known that this happened regularly. Scientists have proven that thujone contained in absinthe, has a positive effect on human performance. However, its overdose can lead to changes in perception. The world seen in yellow colors. And one of the features of Van Gogh's creativity is just abundance. yellow paints in canvases.

In addition to Van Gogh, many other artists are also referred to as absinthe lovers. For example, Edouard Manet in 1859 he created his masterpiece painting "The Absinthe Lover". a similar picture in 1856 the Belgian also wrote Felicien Rops . Famous Degas revealed the theme of the mysterious drink in the painting "Absinthe" in 1876. Great Pablo Picasso even created a whimsical and beautiful sculpture in the form of a glass of absinthe. In 1901 he wrote his famous painting"Absinthe Drinker", which is exhibited in the Hermitage.

Oil/Canvas (1859)

Description

And so, all winter from 1858 to 1859, they met almost every day on the Rue Lavoisier. Manet at that time would be full of enthusiasm. He believed that he created...

Once walking in the Louvre, Edouard Manet turned his gaze to a man walking there. He immediately attracted attention with his appearance. This man's name was Mr. Collardet. He was dressed in a long, filthy cloak, and on his head was a worn and greasy top hat. He traded in all sorts of junk, mostly iron. In general, he looked very poor. Manet offered him a job, namely posing for him for new painting and this man agreed. Thus began work on the painting, which will be called - "The Absinthe Drinker".
And so, all winter from 1858 to 1859, they met almost every day on the Rue Lavoisier. Manet at that time would be full of enthusiasm. He believed that he was creating a canvas that would be worthy of the work of Velasquez. In the painting, Manet depicts this fallen man as an "absinthe drinker".
This painting shows Édouard Manet's intention to have nothing to do with history painting. In The Absinthe Drinker, one can feel the influence on Manet of such artists as Ribera, Zurbaran and Velázquez. The influence of Edward's teacher, Couture, did not pass by either. Many subtleties are built as the teacher wanted, this is especially noticeable in the play of shadows.
After The Absinthe Drinker was finished, Edouard Manet invited Couture to evaluate it. The teacher understood that this was something like graduation, and he should not set his student up. But when the picture appeared before him, he was very surprised and did not like the work. Vulgarity caught my eye. Here is what he said before leaving Manet: "My friend," he throws sharply, "I see only a drunkard - and the artist created this infamy." After this incident, they never saw each other again.
But Manet was not upset by such a review of Couture and hoped in every possible way that the Salon would accept the picture. But his metaphors were not destined to come true. All the members of the salon voted against the exhibiting in the Salon of an "absinthe lover", except for one person, namely Delacroix.
Manet was furious, he was sure that it was Couture who incited the members of the jury against him.

1881-1973

Absinthe drinker

1901 Top right: Picasso.

In 1901, the young Pablo Picasso moved to Paris. Scenes from the life of Parisian cafes have repeatedly served as the subject of the image artists of the 19th century, starting with Degas, but with Picasso this theme received a new sound. It's hard to believe that

Absinthe Drinker was created by a 20 year old artist. The drama of loneliness is shown here with amazing power.

Being an excellent draftsman, Picasso distorted the proportions, deformed the figures, lengthened the arms, fingers, and rounded the shoulders. All this was done not for the sake of an external effect, but for an accurate transmission. psychological characteristics image.

Approaching the viewer of the plane of the wall and the table, the very color of the picture, expressed in a combination of blue, brown-red, greenish tones, recalls the painting of Gauguin, the tension is the work of Van Gogh.

It is believed that the work "Absinthe Drinker" opens the so-called. "blue" period of Picasso's work. At this time, the difficult circumstances of his life were reflected in works in which decadent moods, the themes of death, old age, poverty, and loneliness are clearly expressed. This period, the artist prefers bluish-gray shades. Although color solution work "Absinthe Drinker" still acquired a cold tone, but it is filled with a piercing sense of personal tragedy.

The French impressionist Edgar Degas earned himself an excellent reputation for his paintings of dancers. But in 1876, he seized on a topic that everyone in Europe was "on hearing". And although many talented masters, the artist's contemporaries, wrote dozens of paintings about this "scourge" of modernity, Degas turned out, as always, something unique. It seems that it has no center, no edge, no beginning or end - only reality distorted by absinthe. This is one big, peeped and "torn" from a random plot.

1 Absinthe Was Known By Several Names

When Degas's painting was first exhibited at the third annual Brighton Winter Exhibition in 1876, it was titled "Sketch for a French Café". Later painting was renamed "People in a Cafe", and in the common people the picture began to be called "Drinking Absinthe" or "Glass of Absinthe". And in 1893 it was renamed "Absinthe".

2. The place depicted in the picture is a real cafe in "Paris"

The establishment in which the people in the picture are sitting is the New Athens Café in Paris. It was a real "hotbed of intellectual bohemia", and in this cafe one could often meet such impressionist artists as Degas, Camille Pissarro and Georges-Pierre Seurat.

3. The Degas painting became a kind of anti-absinthe propaganda.

At the end of the 19th century, absinthe was very popular. But gradually this alcoholic drink began to be banned because of its hallucinogenic effect and "the attacks of aggression caused by it." Absinthe was banned in France and later in the United States, the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland and Austria-Hungary. The painting by Degas depicts a sullen woman in a very unsightly state, and in front of her is an easily recognizable drink.

4. The woman in the painting is a famous muse of the Impressionists

In front of the lady in the picture is a filled glass of absinthe, and, apparently, not the first one. Yes, the lady is drunk and indifferent to what is happening, her eyes stopped, her shoulders are lowered, the toes of her elegant shoes “spread out” to the sides and are torn off the ground. Degas posed French actress and the star of the cabaret "Folies-Bergere" Ellen Andre, who went down in history by posing like this famous impressionists like Edgar Degas, Edouard Manet and Pierre-Auguste Renoir.

5. The man in the picture is an artist

The man sitting on the right is in no way connected in the plot with the lady to his right. The man opposite, looks sober and tense, red, bloodshot eyes inexorably repeating about the "hard night". In front of him is a coffee drink for a hangover - Mazagran in a glass.

The prototype of this hero was the French portrait painter, painter and engraver Marcellin Debutin met Degas in Florence in the late 1850s, when Edgar studied paintings in Uffizi gallery. Years later, Debutin appeared in a painting that became far more famous than any of his own works. His portrait was also painted by Manet in 1875.

6. The painting damaged the reputation of the people depicted in it

Since the picture was associated by the public with drunkenness and debauchery, it significantly tarnished the reputation of the people who were depicted in it. After Absinthe was exhibited in London in 1893, rumors began to circulate that Andre - lung woman behavior and not averse to drinking, and Debutin is an inveterate alcoholic.

7. Critics just hated the picture

After the debut of "Absinthe" in 1876, critics simply inflamed with hatred for this canvas. What kind of reviews did not receive a picture. She was called disgusting, ugly and showing only negativity. After 17 years, in 1893, when the painting was re-exhibited in England, a flurry of criticism again rained down, and "Absinthe" was considered this time too vulgar.

8. Degas took criticism with humor

When Degas was asked what he thinks about the criticism of his work, he asked again: "Who criticizes? Art historians? And what kind of profession is this?", Also adding that "only stupid artists expect a compliment from people who themselves can't create anything."

9. A painting by Degas was the inspiration for a literary masterpiece.

IN famous novel"The Trap" by Émile Zola highlighted the problem of alcoholism among the poor class in Paris. Zola's book was first published in 1877, the year after the writer saw the painting at an exhibition.

10. "Absinthe" received recognition in the 20th century

Despite the flurry of criticism, Captain Henry Hill, a collector of works by Degas, purchased "Absinthe" in 1876. Over the next 35 years, the painting passed from one collector to another until Count Isaac de Camondo bequeathed it to the Louvre in 1911. After the painting ended up in the collection of such a prestigious museum, the former criticism was forgotten. In 1986, the canvas was transported to the Parisian Musee d'Orsay where she is to this day.

Connoisseurs visual arts it will be interesting to know and.