A Bar at the Folies-Bergère is Édouard Manet’s last major painting, completed one year before he died

Opened about a decade earlier and located several blocks east of Opera Garnier, the Folies-Bergère was a popular music hall in Paris. In the painting, the huge mirror behind the barmaid reflects the scene: an open hall with big chandeliers, red columns, and spherical light bulbs typically found in Parisian restaurants; the balcony is filled with well-dressed spectators. In the top left, an acrobat in white stockings and green shoes is performing on a swing

Manet frequented the Folies-Bergère and made sketches on-site. He managed to invite one of the barmaids, whose name was Suzon, to pose for him and painted this work entirely in his studio

In this painting, Manet has chosen to ignore normal perspective in his treatment of the central character and her reflection in the mirror. The portrayal of Suzon is strictly frontal, thus logically one would expect her own reflection in the mirror to be completely hidden behind her body. Instead, the reflection of her back can be seen here to the right. And in the mirror one also sees a moustached man wearing a top hat apparently talking to Suzon, although the latter’s blank and hollow expression suggests that she may not be interested in the conversation