The Illusion Behind Manet's Final Painting 

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣👍💯!

I love this comment.

That's customer service or maybe you did that on purpose.

Some feelings are universal.

Funny and, could not agree more. Glad that others see something much deeper, but to me her look is just a “dear God, when will this work shift be over, I am tired of fake smiling” expression.

Well at certain brief points in any work shift you do feel that way.

she actually is

It looks to me like she IS somewhere else (in thought). She's not looking at anyone or any thing and it seems the man is doing the exact same thing.

She is serving upper class people who look down on her while simultaneously using her for carnal pleasure, can you blame her?

@@WobblesandBean Hasn't changed all that much in bars except smoking is no more

Poetic how he managed to make the powerful of his time obsolete by simply having them as background characters

That’s a great point! Manet captured that look so well. Thank you so much for watching!

To me, it looks less of a "I'm seen as insignificant" and more of a "I'm so tired right now, what do you want?"

That same thought struck me when I saw that painting. Many of them, moments you wouldn't want immortalized and scrutinized. Either because it's you, warts and all, or perhaps worse, it's a moment far too mundane to share. I just love that!

It makes sense, since he created his art during the time that marked the beginnings of photography!

@@Art_Deco As I understand...this was the beginning of an Era of artists who's paintings reflected on the start of isolation. Until then, they showed their subjects interacting. Artists depicted the moods of their environments or the changes they felt. Hopper certainly shows that.

What a beautiful thought. Thank you for that.

I love this!

I didn't like this painting as a child precisely because of the strong feeling of loneliness and alienation that it used to give me. It's the same thing like when when you hate an actor because his malefic character is just so convincing.

Good for you. I have seen it a few times, and the experience of seeing a painting is quite different to viewing it on a screen or page, and the only true way to enable one to form a judgement.

How close can you stand to see it?

@@2degucitas At the Courtauld you can stand more or less as close as you wish. I think that distance is an interesting point. With some paintings, such as this, the perspective within the picture leads one to view it at that distance where it makes sense. In others, I like to stand at the point where the ambiguity between the painting as an object and the subject portrayed is most evident, and then I enjoy my mind flitting between the two.

@@2degucitas You can go right up to the glass if you want to. It's not behind any kind of protective barriers. It's just hanging on the wall in a room in the gallery with a bunch of other masterpieces.

I’ll be in London soon. I’ll have to visit The Courtauld Gallery. Thanks for the info

That was the impression I walked away with, the grip on the table and inability to make eye contact scream of someone doing something they don't want to do.

WeirdFangirl2824...that is a great comment and it makes sense of the difference btw the girl standing in front of us and the mirror image, Great comment!!

YES, YES, YES! I made almost the same comment!

That's what I always thought as well!

@WeirdFangi Yes, I feel shes completely inside disassociated from whats going on around her-& I thought (even though in reality man isnt near her) in the reflection -showing them both interacting-& her head in refection is shown like her normal stance wld be in the (average) "interaction" w Her head shown -turned downward slightly-in Subjection to the Larger man whos looking at her- non threatening but seems to be Straight & Tall-He has the obvious Dominance - directly speaking w/ no reserve- possibly asking for ANYTHING there-HER included- in same manner as an orange or a bottle-However- in the outside "role" she has to appear smaller, dainty & Submissive-her reality-inside- She is Larger-Straight up-in her innerself-NOT small & dainty or subservient-Inside her truth is-only a blank unfeeling gaze-of emptiness-wishing she was anywhere else-but in reality that may not matter either- (if youve ever felt-VOID-tech. word is Dysthymic-nothing is happy or sad-it is Zero all the time-) much as the choices in her life). It shows SHE is forcing upon herself to interact-... unlike everyone else in the place-who has CHOSEN to be there, In fact- besides alcohol- SHE is real reason they ARE all there- bc of HER (representing all the other Barmaids?) Her & the items on the table-shown purposely at an distorted angle as a DISPLAY- are the entire purpose/reason of its existence. Take those items away-noone else wld come *-SHE (& the other Barmaids) are-purposely Front & Center as w/out them-NO BAR.

Thank you, Rob! I feel like her expression is just as relatable now as it was back then. Manet was a real genius!

I enjoyed this video and learned from it - but "an in-depth breakdown" in 8 minutes isn't possible.

@@Art_Deco very cool! One other problem with the bottles on the bar they aren’t reflected correctly the bottle with pink fluid would be reflected as in front.

I just found this channel a week ago and I love it. It's so very interesting. Thank you for your insight into these works of art!

That's what I thought as well! I was wondering if anyone else did.

I totally agree. There's such an obvious remembrance vibe.

It's Manet in the mirror.

Came here to say this, lol. The reflection in the mirror is of the past, her and probably a regular visitor. The now is of her remembering those times because maybe the guy doesn't go there anymore.

Interestingly, straight across bangs were not a completely unusual style in the 1880s and 1890s. There are actually quite a few examples of portraits and photos of women with this type of hairstyle (though still not an exceedingly common one). One that comes to mind immediately from a similar period is Portrait d’Alice Louis-Guérin by Helleu (though technically a couple of years later).

@@Theater00jock Thanks-- I just looked that up. Very beautiful. The bangs aren't all the way to the eyebrows as in the Manet. Bangs length was kind of an issue in the mid '60s when I was a teen. Many adults didn't like it when you grew them that long. I even got chastised by a teacher one time, "You'd better get your bangs cut". (I ignored her).

Bangs , or a fringe, were fashionable at this time to my knowledge, but not amongst respectable " women. Society women might flirt with this fashion, but the length seems to have been the difference. I refer in the first place to Frances Hodgson Burnett's " The Fair Barbarian"

@@Theater00jock in your first parentheses you agree with Argus....so what do you meen?🙄

Short fluffy bangs were a popular style even among royalty in the 1870's. Look up Queen Victoria's Hesse granddaughters.

No, I won't wait.

100% agree

That's what I was thinking too. I do this a lot. I dissociate and day dream and replay conversations over and over. So I thought that's what he was going for too.

That’s what I was thinking- that she was daydreaming about an ex lover or a patron that caught her eye, etc….and that’s what was appearing in the reflection of the mirror. She was reflecting on someone or something that happened in the past.

Okay... I am late to the party, but what a beautiful, perfect take.

That makes me so happy! Thank you.

As I understand it, the mirror is witness to the scene. Like a seal of authenticity. Whoever is in the mirror is the witness/notary. And also here he is flattering the royals by including them.

It is the painter, that is in a mirror....

I think this is the best explanation of the painting. "The reflection, is a reflection of her thoughts". Her thoughts..."Is this the way I have to spend the rest of my working life"!? Engaging with men much older than herself to earn a living. She is repulsed by the whole situation and does not want to be there at all.

I totally agree

I can see this, but maybe also the reflection is what she is thinking of is what to come about for her, the fact that it's a reflection makes me think that it hasn't come to pass yet and the look on her face is dread and exhaustion

Never thought about that angle. Thanks.

I surely will! I'm so glad you enjoy them :)

Sometimes artists create things they don't fully understand because it comes from the subconscious. I can perceive things other artists create more accurately than my own work. I just do what feels right and figure it out much later.

Even if an artist DID present the "one true interpretation" of their work, the Death of an Author is going to happen regardless...

I think what you surmise is right !

That was my first impression...it is her future self, and she is feeling trapped in that future, but doesn't see a way out.

My impression is that she knows the man she loves is chatting up a new women in public near her - not hiding it. Her look is of grief. She is uncertain and worried. Is he betraying her? Has she lost him completely and he is moving on?

I really appreciate it. Thank you for watching!

As an extremely myopic child I was introduced to the impressionist artists about the same time I got my first pair of glasses. I soon realized the impressionists were realists painting the world I saw without the glasses. Have had a fondness for them ever since.

Glad you enjoyed it!

Thank you so much!