What does this painting mean (Pic included)?

Question:the painting is by edgar degas and i can't understand the meaning of it. there's always a reason to why painter paints something. why did he paint this? what was he trying to tell us through this painting???

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: the painting is by edgar degas and i can't understand the meaning of it. there's always a reason to why painter paints something. why did he paint this? what was he trying to tell us through this painting???

The "meaning" of a painting is always subjective. And, more often than not, the general consensus on any given work's meaning is either partially or entirely different from the artist's intention. Thus, the most "reliable" interpretation of an artwork's meaning is through the viewer's own visual analysis.

In my own unprofessional opinion, since the large majority of the original Impressionists were concerned with depicting and interpreting the "New Paris" (google search: Baron Haussmann), Degas' Absinthe Drinker illustrates that not everyone's life was made better by the newly renovated city. There was still poverty, drunks, prostitutes, filth, and despair, as conveyed in the drinker's forlorn expression.

Also, did you notice that there are no legs on any of the tables? Degas, like Manet, loved to play with the picture plane and paint visual contradictions. In this case, it could symbolize the dreamlike, hallucinating effects of absinthe upon the woman. Lastly, Degas signed his name at the heading of the newspaper on the table in the foreground, but I'll leave that up to your own interpretation. ;-)

They look disappointed about something.

there is many meanings that it could have. it would be helpful to know who the subjects are and the background of the artist otherwise i would just derive my own meaning and story from the work of art. i think with this one you can conjure up a story of a woman who is unwillingly gone out to dinner with this man. it could be her husband. she could be troubled because she forgot to close the icebox. then again this could be her kidnapper and she worries because she is uncertain of her fate. of course this could just be done from a scene that the artist captured in the cafe with no deeper meaning other than that these are some people siting at a table and the woman seems to be worried.

I think the man sitting next to the woman just adds weight to that side of the painting to balance it. The center subject is the woman. She looks as if she lost someone of something. The color of her clothes seems to blend into the background, as if she's just as inanimate as the wall behind her or the tables and chairs. The focus of the painting is on her eyes which tells a story that has taken her soul away and leaves her body vacant, as if she's in a shocked and depressed state having loss something or someone. Anyway, that's what it looks like to me.

Good artist often somewhat resemble people in shock psychologically, because they're able to suspend their minds and can focus on the present, but only without the negative aspects to being in shock. Philosophers do the same which is why good ones can pierce through reality and see the Truth behind life's veil. So perhaps Degas is doing this and projecting his transcendental state onto his painting in the form of the woman, maybe he's trying to share his mental state with the observer of his painting, which is what any artist does I suppose.

He might be saying that the couple might be married and, if you notice her flat chest, she is being ignored, even when she's done the best at getting dressed up, while her husband just looks ordinary and looking at something else. Maybe she feels no better than the table and chairs, maybe Degas is saying that men give too much attention to women's breast, like he's criticising artist who do.

You know, Edgar Degas and his contemporaries did not put so much meaning into their paintings, no symbolics. They were busy with new visual discoveries and were just portraying daily life of the society they were living in.
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lonely woman at a bar

It has only one meaning and is in the title "The drinkers of absinthe". Just that. All the rest is interpretation.
Anecdotally, the girl was a friend of Degas and man his dentist.
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I was at the Dr.'s office this morning reading an article about Degas and his work at the Louvre. Very interesting to run into this question today.

My thought is that she is lonely for something more, which is represented by the table next to her. The man next to her is "with" her, but is so benign to her at this point that it's like being alone. Although sometimes you can feel more alone in a stale relationship than you would be by actually being single.

Random musings :)

It's an absinthe drinker.

There are many Archetypes in this era of painting. The Absinthe drinker is one. There's also the wandering Jew, the Dancer etc.

It's the absence of life in the living. Kind of like a memento mori- but alive.

Art does not speak for itself. Art has meaning other than the title. If it only speaks for itself than it might be art, but I would definitely consider it bad art.

Artists are participants in society. They aren't autonomous beings. They promote their values just like everyone else.

The woman is passive. The man is being attentive to what is happening to the right side. It's the typical way men addressed women during that time period.