Édouard Manet painted A Bar at the Folies-Bergère on 1886. A lot of critics accuse Manet of ignorance of perspective. And this is one most interesting parts of this painting. The reflection of the man helps us to be closer to the woman as if we are at the bar, and at the same time have information and a pictural description of the atmosphere. From a photographic point of view, it’s possible and very interesting. Maybe the Édouard Manet contemporary critics didn’t have the photographic culture that increase very fast during this period. Two years later, in July 1888 Eastman’s Kodak camera went on the market with the slogan “You press the button, we do the rest” with roll film. So we can consider true the fact photography and new perspective available were still already in the painter culture with contemporary glass negative tectonics.

The woman at the bar is a real person, known as Suzon, who worked at the Folies-Bergère in the early 1880s. Suzon was a demimonde or demimondaines person. Maybe it can help to understand the sadness she has in her eye. The high society of the man is clearly painted with his hat. A Bar at the Folies-Bergère was the painter's last major artwork.