The Green Muse--Absinthe and the Arts

"La Muse verte" by Albert Maignan

Artists of the Belle Epoque called absinthe their "green muse." Did this storied beverage actually enhance their creativity? Little scientific evidence supports this claim, but when one looks at the sheer number of canvases these artists devoted to their favorite libation, one has to wonder.

Pictured here is Albert Maignan's 1895 painting, titled "La muse verte." A poet is depicted in the clutches of the Green Fairy. Whether he is suffering ecstasy or damnation may be for the viewer to decide.

"The Absinthe Drinker" by Manet

The earliest absinthe art to have achieved enough fame in its own time to survive to the present day would have to be "The Absinthe Drinker," by Edouard Manet. When the 26-year-old artist first tried to exhibit the work in 1859, the Salon of Paris rejected it. 

Apparently, the art establishment did not approve of his realistic depiction of the man and his absinthe (the model was actually a rag picker whom Manet asked to pose). The Salon felt artists should take moral stands against intoxication. The fact that Manet's viewpoint was simply neutral was not considered acceptable at that time.  

"L'Absinthe" by Degas

Edgar Degas also felt the sting of moral outrage at his subject matter when he created "L'Absinthe," in 1876. Originally titled "A Sketch of a French Café," the work portrayed two of his friends, the actress. Ellen Andrée, and the engraver, Marcellin Desboutin, drinking absinthe at their favorite Bohemian watering-hole, the Café Nouvelles-Athènes on the Place Pigalle.

One British reviewer called the female model a "slut" in print and insisted Degas's painting was a moral critique of the Bohemian lifestyle, in pious Victorian fashion. Ironically, Ms. Andrée rarely drank absinthe and complained in later life that her friend Degas had made her and Desboutin "look like two idiots."

"Monsieur Boileau at the Cafe" by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

Another resident of the Bohemian demimonde of Montmartre to become fascinated by the Green Fairy was Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. He was known to fill a hollow cane with absinthe and liked to experiment with absinthe cocktails. A favorite was called "The Earthquake," which mixed absinthe with cognac.

His aristocratic father did not approve of his drinking habits and reputedly said, "Why doesn't he go to England? They scarcely notice the drunks there." (In the painting shown here, his father is depicted as the white-bearded gentleman with the top hat in the background of the scene.)

In the later years of his life, the artist's fondness for alcohol got the better of him and he was sent to a sanatorium by his family.

Portrait of Van Gogh by Toulouse-Lautrec

Lautrec was friends with another famous absinthe drinker of that time, Vincent Van Gogh. He made this pastel portrait of Van Gogh in 1887 in the Café du Tambourin, a popular gathering place for the neo-impressionists.

Lautrec and Paul Gauguin are said to have introduced the Dutchman to the most popular vices of the Montmartre's Bohemian subculture: absinthe and prostitutes. Neither did the artist any good.

"Still Life with Absinthe" by Van Gogh

Van Gogh departed the excesses of Paris for Arles in 1888, one year after painting his famous "Still Life with Absinthe." He tried to stop drinking while there, but his resolve did not last long.

Gauguin, who followed him there and shared a house with him, reports that a few days before Christmas that year, "He [Vincent] ordered a light absinthe. Suddenly, he flung the glass and its contents into my face. I managed to duck and grab him, take him out of the cafe and across the Place Victor Hugo. A few minutes  later, Vincent was in his own bed and in a matter of seconds had fallen asleep, not to waken until morning. When he awoke he was perfectly calm and said to me: 'My dear Gauguin, I have a dim recollection that I offended you last night.'"

Three days later, on Christmas Eve, the infamous ear-cutting incident occurred.

"Woman Drinking Absinthe"

The fondness for absinthe among artists in Paris did not end with the Nineteenth Century, though its decadent glamor was starting to fade in the rising tide of temperance. 

In 1901, a twenty-year-old Spaniard named Pablo Picasso began using absinthe culture as subject matter for his developing artistic style. 

"The Absinthe Drinker"

Both "Woman Drinking Absinthe " and "The Absinthe Drinker" are portraits showing a deep emotional reaction to the subject matter. 

"Bottle of Pernod and Glass"

By 1912, Picasso was still creating pictures on an absinthe theme, but his cubist style has now emerged.  

Two years later, he chose a glass of absinthe as his subject for a series of abstract sculptures.

Does absinthe affect creativity? Is it really a Green Muse as the Victorian Art World proclaimed?

The high alcohol content of the drink combined with the stimulating effects of wormwood and certain other herbal additives are thought to produce a state called "lucid intoxication." In other words, the alcohol has a relaxing effect on the central nervous system, but the excitation from the wormwood creates a clarity of mind. This combination may be what the art world loved about absinthe.

But it must also be noted that overindulgence can have disastrous effects, as the lives of Van Gogh  and Lautrec would illustrate.