The author of the picture is an absinthe lover. What is the “girl with absinthe” thinking about in Picasso’s painting? What kind of woman did Picasso depict?
Pablo Picasso. Absinthe lover. 1901 Hermitage, St. Petersburg
“The Absinthe Lover” is kept in St. Petersburg. She is well known all over the world. This is a recognized masterpiece of the young Picasso.
But it’s difficult to call the plot of the film original. Even before Picasso, many artists loved the theme of loneliness and devastation. Depicting people looking into nowhere at a table in a cafe.
We meet such heroes in both.
Left: Edgar Degas. Absinthe. 1876 Orsay Museum, Paris. Right: Edouard Manet. Slivovitz. 1877 National Gallery Washington
And for Picasso himself, the Hermitage “Absinthe Drinker” is not at all original. He more than once portrayed lonely women having a drink. Here are just two of them.
Left: Absinthe drinker. 1901 Kunstmuseum Basel. Right: Drunk, tired woman. 1902 Kunstmuseum Bern
So what is the masterpiece of this particular painting?
It's worth taking a closer look at it.
Details of "The Absinthe Drinker"
In front of us is a woman over 40. She is thin. The elongation of her body is emphasized by her bun of hair and disproportionately long arms and fingers.
Picasso willingly deformed the figures of the heroes. It was not important for him to maintain proportions, much less make the person realistic. Through these deformations he depicted their mental distortions and vices.
The woman's face is also unique. Ugly, with wide cheekbones and narrow, almost absent lips. The eyes are narrowed. It’s as if the woman is trying to think about something, but the thought keeps slipping away.
Pablo Picasso. Absinthe lover (fragment). 1901 Hermitage, St. Petersburg She is already under the influence of absinthe. But he is still trying to maintain a trustworthy appearance. He holds his chin with his hand. She grabbed herself with her other hand.
But it is not only the appearance of the woman that speaks. But also the environment.
The woman sits close to the wall. Like in a very confined space. This increases the feeling of self-absorption. Her loneliness is also emphasized by the clean table, on which, except for a glass and a siphon, there is nothing. Even tablecloths.
Only a mirror behind her. In which a blurry yellow spot is reflected. What is this?
This reflects what is happening in the cafe. Before the heroine's gaze are dancing cheerful couples.
Picasso himself gives us a hint about this. At the same time, he created a pastel version of The Absinthe Drinker.
Pablo Picasso. Absinthe. 1901 Hermitage, St. Petersburg Behind this “absinthe colleague” there is also a yellow spot. But we see silhouettes of dancers.
Perhaps in the Hermitage version Picasso decided to leave the eloquent yellowness. Showing that fun and communication have already left a woman’s life.
The plot is timeless
And it’s worth paying attention to a few details.
Picasso deliberately shades all the lines. A feeling of tobacco smoke and the illusion of a woman’s intoxication are created.
And how many crossed lines there are in the picture! Hands of the heroine. Reflection in the mirror. Dark lines on the wall. Siphon cover. Symbols of crossed out life.
The color scheme is also telling. Blue is a calm color and an unpleasant red tint. A woman balances between common sense and the hallucinatory world of absinthe. Of course, the second one will win. Later.
In general, all the details of the picture emphasize the heroine’s state of mind. A short-term pleasure from a drink against the backdrop of a life that is bursting at the seams.
We immediately understand that in this life there are no loved ones, truly relatives. There is no job that brings joy.
There is only despondency and loneliness. Therefore, alcohol becomes more and more addictive. Helps to destroy life.
This is the genius of this picture. Picasso managed to very poignantly show a man in the process of destroying his life.
And it doesn’t matter in what century this happens. This is a timeless story. This picture is not about a specific woman. And about all the people with a similar fate.
Read about another masterpiece of the master in the article
Absinthe is a strong alcoholic drink (over 72 degrees), which was prepared on the basis of wormwood with the addition of mint and anise. This cheap spirit appeared in the eighteenth century and was first popular among ordinary workers due to its cheapness. Then it began to be widely used in bohemian circles. But absinthe is a hallucinogen, it caused aggression and addiction, similar to drug addiction, and severe convulsions. Its use was banned in 1915. It is produced under the Pernod brand to this day.
Painting "Absinthe"
In France, it is believed that the work was first exhibited at the second exhibition of the Impressionists, entitled “Absinthe.” In 1876, some of the Impressionists refused to visit Courbet's favorite cafe, Guerbois, where it was too noisy. They began to meet at the Place Pigalle in the New Athens cafe. the author of the painting “Absinthe”, portrayed his friends - the actress Ellen Andre (who in life was a completely well-groomed woman, served as a model for both Renoir and Gervais, and danced at the Folies Bergere) and the artist Marcelin Deboutin. Deboutin squandered his considerable fortune, did not gain fame as an artist, and gradually declined. The work illustrates the mores of Parisian life and raises the problem of alcoholism, which was described by other artists, including the writer E. Zola. The artist did not try to show life “beautifully”. He allowed the viewer to peer into the realities that surrounded him.
The medium was the painting “Absinthe”.
Image Analysis
In bohemian Paris, two people suffer from loneliness, even when they are close. Their faces are gloomy. They have the appearance of people detached from reality. Both are dressed sloppily, especially the man. He does not look at his companion, his face is puffy from the fact that he drinks regularly. Near the man is a tall glass of mazargan. This drink was used to relieve hangovers. The woman has a dull, absent look, her shoulders are slumped, her face is pale due to the abuse of absinthe. stretched forward. She doesn't keep an eye on them, and they are arranged splayed out. In front of her stands, apparently, not the first glass of cloudy-greenish absinthe. The model dilutes it with water from a bottle standing on the next table. Their privacy is emphasized by the compositional structure. Degas placed the pair on an inclined plane. This is a tribute to fashion. In Europe at that time everyone was fascinated by Japanese engravings with its unusual perspective and surprisingly accurate drawing. In addition, the couple only occupies the right corner of the picture; the remaining two-thirds are half-empty tables. They have newspapers, matches, an empty bottle on them. Even with complete solitude, the two of them still retain the inner closeness of these people. They have one thing in common - loss of hope. The painting “Absinthe” is simply filled with hopelessness, which is greatly enhanced by the faded coloring.
At an exhibition in London
In 1872-1873 the painting was exhibited across the English Channel and caused outrage among the well-meaning Victorian public. Degas analyzed the scene without complacency, with a clear and critical eye. Most of all, when considering his work, one is reminded of the naturalism, perhaps, of Toulouse-Lautrec. The painting "Absinthe" is in Paris.
Picasso's work
The theme of loneliness, isolation and emptiness in cafes is not new. In the second half of the 19th century it can be found in the works of Degas and Toulouse-Lautrec. But there was still no sense of drama in the young man’s paintings. Picasso has not yet moved to Paris. He comes here on visits from Barcelona. At the age of 22, he was attracted by a popular plot related to the universal passion for absinthe. It was given special properties that allowed it to awaken the imagination, push to a new perception of the world and creativity. The painting “The Absinthe Drinker” by Pablo Picasso has a very strong emotional impact.
Firstly, the plot completely exposes the psychology of a woman. A faint semblance of a smile, sarcasm, doom and fatigue are written on the face. It is immediately clear that the woman’s thoughts are somewhere far away. She is missing here. Nobody needs her, only absinthe is her friend and comforter. Secondly, the color. It is built on a gloomy contrast of dull red and blue and is comparable to the gloomy collisions of life from which there is no way out. The bluish marble table continues this theme of emptiness that surrounds a woman in her desperate loneliness. The woman's frozen body only enhances this impression. She shrank all over. The right hand is deliberately changed in proportions, completely completing the oval and turning the woman out of this world. The painting was painted in the autumn of 1901 in Paris and is in the Hermitage.
van Gogh
In 1887, Van Gogh's painting "Still Life with Absinthe" appeared. He is concise.
There is a bottle of water and a glass of absinthe on the table. A man can be seen leaving through the window. Perhaps he was the one sitting at this table. But something else is more interesting. The problem of alcoholism, which confronted the artist himself. He himself willingly consumed this drink, which also causes visual impairment. This results in the whole world appearing yellow. Perhaps this is why there was a period when the painter’s paintings were dominated by yellow, especially during his life in the south of France. His passion for absinthe led to him cutting off his ear in 1888. The painting is located in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
And the conclusion is the simplest.
Alcoholism is very easy to come by, but the results are terrible.
Absinthe is a strong alcoholic drink made using wormwood, has a greenish color and a strength of up to (70 - 75) °. Absinthe is sometimes called wormwood vodka.
The history of alcoholic beverages infused with wormwood began in ancient times.
Pliny the Elder (23 - 79 AD) mentioned wine with wormwood extract for tartness. In Ancient Greece, the winner of a chariot race drank from a goblet wine infused with wormwood and absorbed its extract. This wine was supposed to remind the winner that glory has not only a pleasant, but also a bitter, fierce side.
The ancient Greeks also used wormwood tincture for medicinal purposes, and in medieval England, hot beer with wormwood, called “purl,” was widespread.
Absinthe became a particularly popular drink in France in the second half of the 19th century. There were even special cafes and clubs for absinthe fans. From 1875 to 1913 in France, per capita consumption of absinthe increased 15 times; for example, in 1913, the French drank about 40 million liters of absinthe. In 1837, absinthe appeared in America in New Orleans under the brand names “Green Opal” and “Milky Way”. Absinthe became fashionable and even received another name - “Green Fairy”, as the opinion was established that absinthe gives rise to bizarre images in the mind.
Pablo Picasso Drinking Absinthe 1901 New York
Absinthe gained particular popularity among the creative bohemia of that time. As you know, creative people love everything extraordinary and unusual, which is perhaps why they were attracted by the ritual of consuming absinthe, and perhaps by the unusual taste and color of the drink and its stimulating effect. But one way or another, it was believed that absinthe awakens a new perception of the world, brings with it creative inspiration, extraordinary feelings and sensations. There was even a rumor that women were much more desirable after drinking a glass of absinthe. They drank and praised absinthe, artists immortalized it in paintings, writers and poets in their works, calling absinthe the “Green Muse.”
Pablo Picasso Absinthe 1902
In all Parisian cafes from the Latin Quarter to Montmartre, the time from 5 to 7 pm began to be called “l" heure verte” (green time), when the almost sacred “absinthe ritual” took place. Numerous lovers and lovers of absinthe in a glass with this emerald bitter “ nectar" they poured water drop by drop through a perforated spoon with a lump of sugar, which instantly turned the drink milky yellow-green, and they sipped this cloudy mixture with a strong anise flavor with pleasure. Sometimes the sugar was soaked in absinthe (or simply poured absinthe into a glass through sugar). and set it on fire - it looked very impressive, and the drink seemed like a real “green serpent”.
Pablo Picasso Absinthe 1901 Hermitage
Absinthe was consumed by artists Edouard Manet, Van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, poets Guillaume Apollinaire, Paul Verlaine, Ernest Dawson, Arthur Rimbaud, author of surrealist plays Alfred Jarry, writers Edgar Allan Poe, Maupassant, as well as Oscar Wilde and many others.
In 1859, Edouard Manet created his famous painting “The Absinthe Drinker,” which is kept today in the New Carlsberg Glyptothek in Copenhagen (the owner of the largest Danish beer company Carlsberg, a famous collector and philanthropist).
In 1865, a similar work, which became a world classic, was written by the Belgian artist Felicien Rops, and in 1876 the great Degas embodied the same theme in his canvas “Absinthe.” Van Gogh painted a still life with a decanter and a glass of absinthe in 1887. Baudelaire, Verlaine, Zola, Toulouse-Lautrec, Modigliani and Victor Hugo did not ignore absinthe, usually starting and ending the day with a glass of the “green fairy” in one of the cafes in Montparnasse. They say that Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, unable to bear even a short separation from his favorite drink, carried it with him in a special flask embedded in the handle of his cane.
Picasso has THREE paintings dedicated to an absinthe lover. They have different names, but they were all written in 1901. The painting "The Absinthe Lover" is now in the Hermitage.
Pablo Picasso Absinthe Lover 1901 Hermitage
One day in the spring of 1914, Picasso made a wax sculpture of a glass of absinthe. Rejecting conventional forms, the artist opened one of its walls so that absinthe could flow like a fountain into a pool, and the glass itself was sculpted in the shape of a severely deformed human head: the opening wall is an eye with a heavy drooping eyelid, which is repeated on the opposite closed side of the “face”, a large nose and a huge upper lip, well emphasizing the movement of absinthe to the pool of the lower lip. The conical base of the glass is the neck. The top of the head is open and equipped with a kind of “hat” in the form of a silver perforated spoon with a bronze piece of sugar. Six bronze castings were made from the model of this sculpture, which Picasso painted in different ways. Most likely, the artist was trying to somehow explain the effect of this drink directly on the brain of the drinker.
Pablo Picasso Absinthe glass 1914
At the beginning of the 20th century, absinthe became a kind of fetish for the French. There is an opinion that a person who has a desire for this drink does not just suffer from alcoholism, but has some kind of elevated form of alcoholism. Absinthe not only intoxicates, but immerses the drinker in a world of fantasy and hallucinations.However, Picasso’s painting “Girl with Absinthe” is full of special drama, since the hypertrophied hand of the heroine, who seems to be trying to hug herself with it, is striking. It is clear that the woman is thinking about something, her gaze is directed into the distance. Many art critics have wondered what Picasso’s heroine is thinking about as she sits drinking intoxicating absinthe.
What kind of woman did Picasso depict?
Most likely, the woman is lonely, she is in no hurry to get anywhere and often goes to a small French cafe to sit alone and reminisce. The viewer is attracted by the woman’s gaze – deep and thoughtful. Surely she is thinking about how aimlessly and mediocrely her life is passing, since her only joy is a glass of wormwood tincture (as absinthe was called).Perhaps a woman, remembering her youth, is trying to understand why she was given such a joyless, hard life, because there are so many lucky people around who live differently, completely differently. A smile froze on her lips, not maliciously, but rather also with an admixture of sadness, matching the tone of her eyes. A smile and eyes help the viewer understand what is going on, what is happening in her head and, possibly, in her soul.
The heroine's eyes are half-closed and her shoulders are slumped. It’s as if she’s trying to hold herself in place so as not to stand up and shout to the whole world about her loneliness and the joylessness of existence.
Picasso achieves a sense of the tragedy of fate with the help of a brown-blue palette that predominates in the painting. The artist clearly makes it clear to the viewer that there is no way out, that the woman can no longer do anything. One day her life took a monotonous slippery path, and that’s it, there was no way out. Surely, in that Parisian cafe it is cozy and cheerful, but the woman does not notice all this. There are a lot of questions in her head that no one can answer for her. And she herself was completely lost.
The theme of absinthe was also touched upon in the works of Toulouse Latrec, Degas, etc. At the beginning of the 20th century, absinthe was banned for consumption as a drink with a narcotic effect. But even absinthe is unable to distract Picasso’s heroine from thoughts about her difficult fate. Otherwise, the title of the painting can be translated as “Absinthe Lover.” The painting was bought by Sergei Ivanovich Shchukin, a Russian philanthropist. After the war, “Woman with Absinthe” ended up in the Hermitage.
Title, English: The absinthe drinker.
original name: La buveuse d'absinthe.
Year of ending: 1901.
Dimensions: 73 × 54 cm.
Technique: Oil on canvas.
Location: St. Petersburg, State Hermitage Museum
The painting was painted in 1901, this is the period (1900-1904) when the master traveled a lot along the Barcelona-Paris route before finally moving to France. He works a lot, attends exhibitions, meets new people, including art dealers.
Succumbing to the general mood, the artist, in his works, uses a popular subject at that time - a lonely cafe visitor, who was also approached by the impressionists.
It is worth noting that during this period Picasso does not consider it necessary to depict fun, general joy, happiness, and frivolity. The abandonment of man in this world is the main motive that worries the young Picasso.
The “absinthe drinker” is a lonely cafe visitor drinking a drink that immerses a person in a world of peculiar fantasies and hallucinations, because at the turn of the century absinthe became a kind of fetish in Paris. Even some mystical and magical properties were attributed to him, encouraging creativity and a new perception of the world.
The impression that the picture makes on the viewer is incredible in its emotional load. There is no narrative here as such, there is only a peculiar plot - a naked psychological image, and externally - this is an angular, tired face, a gloomy, devastated look, nervous hands with which the heroine tries to protect herself from the surrounding reality. Her face is concentrated, her gaze seems to be studying something inside herself. But if you look at the picture for a long time, it seems that the woman is looking into the viewer’s soul, carefully studying and thinking about something.
On the lips there is a semblance of a smile, a strange sarcasm expressing doom and fatigue. The woman’s thoughts are far from this table, from this cafe - a haven for people just like her - homeless. Yes, no one needs them in this world. She closed herself off, secluded herself, and only absinthe divides her existence.
The color scheme of the canvas is impressive. The contrast of colors is like the contrast of life situations. The combination of rich blue and deep burgundy colors gives the canvas an atmosphere of calm, but at the same time, internal struggle. A black stripe separates the corner of the cafe where the heroine finds herself, or maybe this is a dead end corner?
The painting is characterized by heightened drama, which is expressed in the image of a hypertrophied right hand. The woman seems to be trying to protect herself from everything in this uncomfortable world. Picasso deliberately distorts his arms and fingers, making them excessively long and his shoulders more rounded. These are not external, but rather internal psychological characteristics of the image, which expresses the amazingly powerful drama of loneliness. The plasticity of the body is constrained, frozen, as if petrified.
The color of the canvas is a combination of green, brown-red, blue tones, bringing the plane of the table and the wall closer to the viewer, reminiscent of Gauguin’s style, the tension of the canvas is similar to the work of Van Gogh.
“The Absinthe Lovers” refers to Picasso’s Blue Period. His paintings are made in cool colors, dominated by bluish-gray and blue shades. The main themes are the theme of loneliness, poverty, old age, death, and decadent moods.
Picasso painted more than one painting on the theme of absinthe. In June 1901, the world saw the “Absinthe Drinker” with a piece of sugar in her hands. In the autumn of the same year, a canvas was created called “Aperitif”, or (according to Kahnweiler’s archive), “Woman with a Glass of Absinthe”. It was this work that Sergei Ivanovich Shchukin bought, and later collected 51 works by the world famous master in his collection. After the revolution, its collection was nationalized and distributed to the funds of the Hermitage and the Pushkin Museum.
