On this day, one of the most famous establishments in Parisian history opened

Probably, if you ask a person who has not been to Paris about the most famous entertainment establishment there from a historical point of view, he will name the "Moulin Rouge", which opened in 1889. Incidentally, it was there that the first public striptease was performed on stage, and purely improvisational - in 1893, a girl under the stage name Mona took off all her clothes, for which she was fined 100 francs.

However, if you ask an art lover about the same thing, he will immediately remember the famous (and, perhaps, the best) painting by Manet "Bar at the Folies Bergère". Know-it-all Wikipedia calls the Folies Bergère, which opened on May 2, 1869, a cabaret and variety show. However, the French Wikipedia, which in this case is more trustworthy, talks about a "theater hall". By the way, already at its opening (the Folies Bergère, like the Moulin Rouge, are still functioning) it accommodated 1,200 people, and the press wrote about it a week after the opening as "spacious, extremely elegant, but with less than ideal sound".

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By the way, in this note the Folies Bergère is called a "theater-café". And, returning to Manet's painting, we note that the bar he painted was located to the right of the stage. (Barmaid Suzy posed, naturally, in the artist's studio).

The first appearance of a naked artist on stage took place at the Folies Bergere much later than at the Moulin Rouge - in 1912, but it was not an improvisation, but a planned number. And, in addition, the dancers of the Folies Bergere had their own "thing" - feathers.

In addition, in terms of the composition of stars of different calibers performing on stage, the Folies Bergere has no equal - from Isadora Duncan and Mata Hari to Charlie Chaplin, Edith Piaf, Marcel Marceau, Frank Sinatra and Johnny Hallyday.

And since we started with painting, we will finish with it - a picky connoisseur will tell us that the "Moulin Rouge" also had its own artist, and a permanent one at that - Toulouse-Lautrec. This is true, and his works and Manet's paintings once again emphasize the difference between these two establishments. And at the same time, if we do not count the posters of Toulouse-Lautrec, in both cases the viewer is looking at loneliness in the crowd.

Photo: Wikipedia