The Absinthe Drinker

The Absinthe Drinker or Glass of Absinthe is an 1875–1876 painting by Edgar Degas. Its original title was Dans un Café, which is still used today. A sketch of a French café and Figures at Café were two other early works. When the picture was shown in London in 1893, the title was changed to L'Absinthe, the name by which it is now well recognized. It is in the permanent collection of Paris's Musée d'Orsay.

The Absinthe Drinker, painted in 1875–76, depicts a woman and man sitting side by side, sipping a glass of absinthe. They appear sluggish and lonely. The male, wearing a hat, looks off the edge of the canvas to the right, while the woman, dressed more formally in elegant clothes and hat, gaze vacantly downward. A glass of absinthe sits on the table in front of her. Ellen Andrée, an actress who previously appeared in Édouard Manet's paintings Chez le père Lathuille and Plum Brandy, and Marcellin Desboutin, a painter and etcher, served as models for the picture. The Café de la Nouvelle-Athènes in Paris is where they are getting their refreshment.

Author: Edgar Degas