What was it like to work at the Folies-Bergère?
What can we learn about Suzon and this work based on x-rays?
In addition to Suzon being based on a real person, the Folies-Bergère is also a real club in Paris. The Folies-Bergère is still in operation today, located at 32 rue Richer in the 9th Arrondissement. Its present day operations of stage and musical entertainment is not too far off from it's original operatic, theatre and circus beginnings.
Founded in 1869, the Folies-Bergère was the largest café-concert in Paris, an establishment that provided dinner and musical entertainment, with drinks available all evening from various bars. Attractions included a circus act, and the two green marks in the upper left-hand corner of the painting are the boots of a trapeze artist. The duties of the barmaids however, were much less glamorous than that of the performers. Suzon was of a lower-class than the patrons she served, the majority being middle to upper class clientele. The clothing she is seen wearing is a uniform, given to her by her employers at the Folies-Bergère; this costume in a sense allows her to fit in with her upper class surroundings. Suzon and the other women who worked there were expected to smile at male customers and appear receptive, to increase drink sales.
The writer Guy de Maupassant once visited the Folies-Bergère and described seeing ‘a painted tribe of prostitutes on the prowl’. Suzon may or may not have been a prostitute, but many of the women working with her at the Folies-Bergère openly sold themselves to the clientele. Many of these women were considered "Lorettes", a term used to describe women of indeterminate social class who frequented stylish places of bourgeois leisure, yet having no financial resources, supported themselves through casual prostitution. Barmaids, artists’ models and prostitutes at the time were considered similarly to one another as girls who sold either goods or themselves.
Click on the image to view Manet's first model in high-resolution.
Life in late 19th to early 20th century Paris was an exciting yet vulnerable time for women. Known as the Belle Époque, 1871 up until 1914 was a period characterized by optimism, peace in France and Europe, new technology and scientific discoveries. The peace and prosperity in Paris allowed the arts to flourish, and many masterpieces of literature, music, theatre, and visual art gained recognition. The Belle Époque was named, in retrospect, considered a "golden age" in contrast to the horrors of World War I.
Clubs and music halls such as the Folies-Bergère, along with the Moulin Rouge and Au Lapin Agile, were at the epicenter of the Belle Époque. Life for Suzon must have been exciting, yet also disheartening. Women were still seen as second class citizens, as the women's suffrage and voting rights movement did not begin in Europe until 1904 with the founding of the International Women's Suffrage Alliance. Even so, France did not extend suffrage to women until 1944. For Suzon, despite being an employed independent woman, she was seen as inferior by the clientele she served each night. Despite these injustices, Suzon would have been a proud woman who rose up from humble beginnings and avoided becoming a woman of the streets.
Click on the image to view more 19th and 20th century advertisements for the Folies-Bergère .
Suzon was a real woman and employee at the Folies-Bergère, who modeled for Manet's A Bar at the Folies-Bergère from 1881 to 1882. Although we do not know specific details of her life, we do know she was not Manet's original model for his final masterpiece. In his original sketches, Manet used another of the Folies barmaids for his initial design, who later left or was fired. Suzon was likely chosen as Manet's final model for her beauty, and she assumably agreed to participate as a second source of income.
Art historians have debated over Suzon's true job role at the Folies-Bergère, claiming she may not just have been a barmaid, but also a prostitute. Suzon would have had limited options for employment in 1880's Paris, along with countless other women in the 19th and early 20th century. Suzon likely grew up in Paris' lower classes, and would have been considered lucky to have a steady income. Even if it meant selling herself in addition to the products behind the bar, she could use her classically beautiful looks as a means for success. Perhaps this is why art critics and historians have interpreted her facial expression as detached, melancholy and ambivalent as a glimpse into her life as a fille de joie, a lady of the night.
Many historians disagree, saying that although the Folies-Bergere was known as a hub for prostitution, Suzon was not. She is presented as an object of desire as part of her job duties, and in turn, the customer may think she is one more object which money can buy. Her sullen and detached expression may merely be Manet's interpretation of desire in the abstract. Although Suzon lived a less conventional life than a proper bourgeoise, and as a modern woman of the time she may have had many lovers including theatre managers, between this and prostitution there is an enormous gap.
Click on the image to view in high-resolution.
"Just like the charming barmaid who must be bright, alert and well disposed for fourteen hours a day, if she wishes to keep her place! How much better than being on the streets!"
Who was Suzon?
What was her life in 19th century Paris like?
Suzon, the Barmaid at the Folies-Bergère
The Courtauld Institute used x-ray technology to analyse and uncover the secrets that had been hidden under the finished A Bar at the Folies-Bergère. We know that Manet painted the majority of this masterpiece in his studio as his health deteriorated, reconstructing an elaborate solution to painting 'from life'. Suzon would visit him in the winter of 1881 to 1882 and stand behind a marble bar constructed within the studio space, based on his original preparatory studies.
Suzon was initially painted clasping her left hand with her right hand well above the wrist, a gesture that emphasised her glovelessness, but that concealed her sexualised tightly corseted torso. The final pose of her hands could suggest a gesture of impatience, vulgarity, forwardness and confrontation. The woman with a lorgnette in the background, just to the left of the Suzon’s left shoulder, was also a late addition, and her active looking is a challenge to passive femininity. We can see that Manet went through a process of refinement to reach his final composition, which is the most daring of all the options he had conceived.
Click on the image to view in high-resolution.