Student Type

Graduate

Document Type

Article

Abstract

This paper explores the role of the barmaid in relation to commodity in Édouard Manet’s A Bar at the Folies Bergère during the explosion of mass consumption that helped define nineteenth century Paris modernity. Building upon existing scholarship, I explore the figure’s role as a member of the emerging working class female, a possible prostitute and an advertising device, promoting the bar’s goods, along with the experience of the Folies-Bergère to the city’s inhabitants. This paper includes formal and iconographical analysis of the figure in relation to commodity as well as a cultural analysis of how these representations reflect attitudes surrounding the commodification of female roles in newly modernized Paris.

Recommended Citation

Quirk, Erin (2023) "Everything’s for Sale: The Barmaid as a Figure of Commodity in A Bar at the Folies Bergère," The Confluence: Vol. 3: Iss. 1, Article 5.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.62608/2150-2633.1045
Available at: https://digitalcommons.lindenwood.edu/theconfluence/vol3/iss1/5