Drunk Art

Drunk Art



The Absinthe Drinker, Édouard Manet , 1859




     The image above was Manet's final interpretation of the absinthe drinker. But by no means was how this masterpiece started. For the sake of argument lets present the beginning stage along with Manet's supposed inspiration.





     Here we see stage one. Nothing but bare bones, there is barely a background and little to no detail. However, the has been special attention given to the Hat and the shoal. this stage of the picture shows a remarkable resemblance to one of Raphael's representations.




     Here we see Manet's stage one against Raphael in a Cloak, C.1520 (engraving) By Marcantonio Raimondi. We can see the similarities but also the differences in an all out war between engravers vs. painters.




     Manet's final adaptation kept the shoal and the hat. Also extended the the body of the character making him longer stronger, more dignified in every single way. both characters seem to have the same expression of content, but the war of engravers vs. painters take on a deeper meaning. The engraving has engraving plates and tools on the left, risen as if on a pedestal, while the painting has a cup in the same position, said cup has the very tricky resemblance  of a paint brush or spatula (a close up can be seen below) ready to be used by the character.  





   Manet seem to have a fixation with placing out of character things in his paintings. the placing mechanism he learned from his master Delacroix. here we can see a close up of one of Liberty Leading the People. Notice the top hat. in order to realize how out of place the Hat actually is we need to look at the whole work below.





Art is intoxicating!!!!