[sotd] The Drink That Fuelled a Nation's Art [January 10, 2008]
- From: "The Site of the Day" <sotd@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: sotd@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 10 Jan 2008 12:46:43 -0400
Site of the Day, for Thursday, January 10, 2008
The Drink That Fuelled a Nation's Art
Today's site, from a publication of the famous Tate Museum in Britain,
offers a fascinating essay on the relationship of art and a peculiarly
French drink, absinthe. Gentle Subscribers will discover a riveting
presentation of illustrated commentary on the artists of late 19th and
early 20th century France whose fondness for this remarkable 136 proof,
bitter-tasting drink became legendary.
"'What is there in absinthe that makes it a separate cult? Even in ruin and
in degradation it remains a thing apart: its victims wear a ghastly aureole
all their own, and in their peculiar hell yet gloat with a sinister
perversion of pride that they are not as other men' - Aleister Crowley, The
Green Goddess (1918) ... In the second half of the nineteenth century
absinthe became commonly known as "the queen of poisons" and in France was
considered responsible for a range of social changes - from an increase in
numbers incarcerated in asylums, to trade union unrest and even women's
emancipation." - from the website
This article, by Jad Adams, author of "Hideous Absinthe: A History of the
Devil in a Bottle", documents the artists, such as Toulouse-Lautrec,
Gauguin, and van Gogh who drank absinthe or displayed it in their
paintings. Poster advertisements of the period convey the initial product
boost for absinthe and the later grim warnings before it was finally
banned. (Keen gardeners may note that wormwood, from which the absinthe
toxin is obtained, is the common name for their sprightly Artemisia
absinthium.) Among the highlights of the essay are the notes on Degas'
"L'Absinthe", the iconic painting of the period and its hostile reception
at Christie's auction in 1892.
Swan over to the site for a gripping look at a singular era in the history
of French art at:
http://www.tate.org.uk/tateetc/issue5/thedrink.htm
A.M. Holm
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