Provenance
Possibly Major Hugh Edward Wilbraham, M.B.E. [1857-1930], Delamere House, near Northwich, Cheshire; by inheritance to his son, George Hugh de Vernon Wilbraham [1890-1962], Delamere House; (his sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 18 July 1930, no. 33); (Jacques Goudstikker, Amsterdam);[1] restituted 6 February 2006 to his daughter-in-law, Marei von Saher, Greenwich, Connecticut; purchased 5 November 2007 through (Christie's, New York) by NGA.
[1] The dealer Jacques Goudstikker fled Amsterdam with his wife and son in May 1940, and died in an accident on board the ship on which he left. He left behind most of his gallery's stock of paintings, including the Ruysdael, and with the rest of the Goudstikker paintings, it was confiscated by the Nazis later the same year and delivered to Hermann Göring; see _Rapport inzake de Kunsthandel v.h J Goudstikker NV in oprichtung per 13 September 1940_, Bijlage III, "Staat van Schilderijen, gekocht door den
Rijksveldmaarschalk H. Göring van de "oude" Goudstikker,” Access no. 1341, inv. 103, Gemeentearchief, Amsterdam. The painting was recovered by the Allies at the end of World War II and held at the Munich Central Collecting Point (where it was no. 5324), before being returned to the Netherlands in 1948. In the Netherlands, ownership was transferred among several museums, during which time the painting maintained the identifying inventory number NK 2347: Stichting Nederlands Kunstbezit, The Hague, in 1948; Dienst voor's Rijks Verspreide Kunstvoorwerpen, The Hague, 1948-1975; Dienst Verspreide Rijkscollecties, The Hague, 1975-1985; Rijksdienst Beeldende Kunst, The Hague, 1985-1997; and Instituut Collectie Nederland, Amsterdam, in 1997. Physical custody of the painting was transferred in 1960 to the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, where it had the inventory number SK A 3983 and where it remained until 2006. In 2005, the Dutch Advisory Committee on the Assessment of Restitution Applications for Items of Cultural Value and the Second World War recommended in favor of the Goudstikker family's claim for the return of this and other paintings that had been confiscated in 1940. The surviving heirs were Marei von Saher, the widow of Goudstikker's son, Edward, and her daughters, Charlène and Chantel, who received the restituted paintings in early 2006.
Accession Number
2007.116.1
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
overall: 101.5 x 134.8 cm (39 15/16 x 53 1/16 in.)
Classification
Painting
Credit Line
Patrons' Permanent Fund and The Lee and Juliet Folger Fund. This acquisition was made possible through the generosity of the family of Jacques Goudstikker, in his memory.
Tags
Painting Baroque (1600–1750) Oil Painting Canvas Dutch
Background & Context
Background Story
L'Absinthe, painted between 1875 and 1876, is one of Degas's most controversial works. It depicts a man and a woman sitting side by side in a cafe, separated by a gulf of isolation. The woman stares vacantly at a glass of absinthe; the man stares into the middle distance with equal disengagement.
When exhibited in England in 1892, it provoked a storm of moral outrage. Critics condemned it as disgusting and a threat to public morality - revealing more about Victorian anxieties than about the painting itself, which Degas intended as a study of social isolation, not moral commentary.
The models were the actress Ellen Andree and the etcher Marcellin Desboutin - neither was an absinthe addict. The painting's genius lies in its composition: two figures physically close yet inhabiting entirely separate worlds, their isolation rendered permanent by the rigid geometry of the cafe interior.
Cultural Impact
L'Absinthe became the most famous depiction of absinthe drinking in art and the visual foundation for the drink's reputation as a source of social destruction. Its influence on the popular image of absinthe persists to this day.
Why It Matters
This painting is Degas's most devastating image of modern loneliness: two people at the same table, in the same cafe, who are more alone than if they were in different cities. The absinthe glass is not the cause of isolation but its emblem.
![Saint Bernard and Saint Catherine of Alexandria with the Virgin of the Annunciation [right panel]](https://api.nga.gov/iiif/e6890364-4d99-4684-a62b-5060ee3c3446/full/400,/0/default.jpg)
