A Bar At The Folies-Berge Analysis

A Bar at the Folies-Bergère was painted in 1882 and displayed at the Paris Salon; it is considered the last major piece of French painter Édouard Manet. It describes a act in the Folies Bergère nightclub in Paris. It originally belonged to the originator Emmanuel Chabrier, who was Manet's neighbor, and hung over his piano.
In Manet’s painting, shows a young lady by the name of Suzon, who worked at the Folies-Bergère. Which is known as one of the finest Parisian cafés-concerts, some sort of beer hall with circus acts, shows, music and other entertainment. Suzon stands by herself in a packed building. The expression on her face is disconnected, depressed, unfocused from her work when she is supposed to be serving the massive packed building mirrored in the glass that she is in front of. Suzon is wearing a necklace that is a symbolic of another life, or a love

Suzon is estranged from her surroundings, like there is a glass window separating her and all the other people in the building - the liars, lovers, drinkers, chatters-up, thieves, and businessmen. Manet takes Suzon separation from her world by making her the only one who is not reflecting in the glass mirror behind her. All the others in this painting is shown in this giant bar mirror: the rapidly painted, severely reflected bodies and faces, a woman wearing gloves with her client or lover, another person observing the act with binoculars. She is watching all of them as objects, but at one eliminated, through a dark glass. There are a few hard realities like the marble counter top and the bottles that looks like beer or champagne, a large bowl of oranges, two flowers precisely standing in a vase. Suzon is using both hands firmly to lean on the bar as if she needs something sturdy to touch, just in case she is carried away by the whirlpool of shapes and lights replicated in the mirror.