Absinthe Drinker

Absinthe Drinker is a picture of typical habitués of French café’s. Here we can see a woman and a man. Woman is dressed like a courtesan. She’s sitting with a dull expression on her face, perhaps due to the effect of drinking poisonous alcohol. Or maybe Degas intended to show the miserableness caused by her way of life. Beside the woman sits a man who is smoking a pipe. He looks more tense, interested by something. This isn’t a pair of random people Degas has caught in a cafe. They are close friends of Degas, actress Ellen Andree and painter Marcellin Desboutin.