The Absinthe Drinker
1859
Meet the original rebel of the Paris art scene. In 1859, a young Édouard Manet painted this brooding figure—a real-life ragpicker named Collardet—wrapped in a heavy cloak and nursing a glass of the notorious 'green fairy,' absinthe. The official Salon rejected it outright, calling it ugly and unfinished, though the great Delacroix was the only judge to defend it. Notice the discarded bottle on the ground? It’s a gritty, unglamorous look at street life that paved the way for the Impressionist revolution.
Location: National Gallery, London
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