13 famous absinthe drinkers

Many of the famous writers and artists were regular absinthe drinkers. Whether absinthe helped someone in their work is a rhetorical question, but for many it had a completely opposite effect.

It is an indisputable fact that all the people on the Whisperer’s list have achieved worldwide recognition in art and culture.

cocktails with absinthe

Édouard Manet, 1832-1883

In 1859, Manet created the first picture under the influence of absinthe. The picture was called “The Absinthe Drinker (Absinthe Drinker)”, the work provoked a scandal and the selection committee refused to hang it on display.

While society was energized by absinthe, this portrait of a swaggering, dandy drunkard (actual friend of Manet) offended dignitaries.

The elite are accustomed to seeing drunkards portrayed as miserable, oppressed scoundrels.

The pride and vitality of the depicted person frightened them. The committee attacked the painting for its “vulgar realism”. And this was not an isolated criticism.

Edgar Degas 1834-1917

The famous artist immortalized absinthe in his 1876 painting L’Absinthe, which depicts a man and a woman sitting in a café, their faces blank and their eyes glassy.

Under its original title “Sketch for a French Café”, the painting was not well received.

But when it was exhibited at the Grafton Gallery under a new name, it caused a huge controversy, provoking a diplomatic incident that soured Anglo-French relations.

Charles Cros 1842-1888

Cros is considered the inventor of the phonograph, a device he called the Paréophone.

But, lacking the financial resources, he was unable to patent his device before Thomas Edison and others developed the idea and began production.

The inventor is also known for developing certain processes for color photography and the automatic telegraph.

How Kro managed to come up with these inventions remains a mystery, he is rumored to frequent some of the most famous cafes in Paris and drink up to twenty shots of absinthe a day!

True or not, he also wrote some wonderful poetry and was obviously a great inventor.

Paul Marie Verlaine 1844-1902

Verlaine sang the praises of absinthe in his youth and cursed him on his deathbed.

While drinking, he interacted with prostitutes and men.

To the dismay of his young wife, for a time the younger poet Rimbaud was his constant companion, both platonically and sexually.

A tumultuous relationship with Rimbaud eventually led to Verlaine’s imprisonment after he shot Rimbaud twice, once in the wrist.

Verlaine spent the last years of his life in slums degraded by poverty, drug addiction and alcoholism.

August Strindberg 1849-1912

Swedish playwright, writer and short story writer.

He combined psychology and naturalism in a new European drama, which turned into the drama of the expressionists.

His play Miss Julie (1888) remains today the most concentrated example of the first step in the development of modern drama because it shattered old illusions about the meaning and value of human existence, as well as 19th-century assumptions about how existence could be represented in theater.

During his stay in Paris in the 1880s, he encountered absinthe like everyone else in France at the time.

Absinthe is mentioned in several works of the author.

Vincent Van Gogh 1853 – 1890

The famous artist suffered from a hereditary mental illness for most of his life.

It is believed that absinthe was the catalyst in his mental state. But, the effect of absinthe on his work and behavior is virtually unknown.

Most researchers agree that he was a heavy drinker, addicted to a number of substances, even paint thinner.

He may also have been a victim of foxglove poisoning, which was a common treatment for epilepsy at the time.

This explains the special style of light transmission in Van Gogh’s paintings (a method of treating epilepsy could cause the patient to become hypersensitive to light).

It is known that the psychosis experienced by Van Gogh is more consistent with acute alcoholism than “absinthism”.

Oscar Wilde 1854-1900

Known for his amazing wit and scandalous lifestyle, Wilde was a great aesthete, celebrating beauty for beauty’s sake in a series of brilliant plays, poems, tales and essays.

In his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, the young man is corrupted by sensual indulgence and moral indifference.

Wilde’s lifestyle became too outrageous for Victorian sensibilities, and in 1895 he was imprisoned for having a homosexual relationship with Lord Alfred Douglas.

The two great poems “The Ballad of Reading in Prison” and “De Profundis” were inspired by his prison experiences.

Oscar Wilde is often cited as an avid absinthe drinker. However, there is no reliable evidence that he drank a lot of absinthe.

No references to absinthe can be found in any of his writings or letters. The famous absinthe quotes often attributed to Wilde were written by other authors allegedly “quoting” Wilde.

Arthur Rimbaud 1854-1891

French poet and adventurer who rose to prominence in the Symbolist movement and markedly influenced modern poetry.

Edvard Munch 1863-1944

Norwegian symbolist painter and forerunner of expressionist art.

Munch’s most famous painting is without a doubt The Scream.

Munch studied art with the Norwegian Christian Krogh. Living in Oslo, or Christiania as he was called at the time, Munch was a close friend of the Bohemian Hans Jaeger, who greatly influenced his thinking and art. Together they spent many nights in cafes, drinking absinthe.

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec 1864-1901

In his late teens, Lautrec was honored to become a pupil of the painter Fernand Cormon in Paris, whose studio was on a hill above the city of Montmartre.

When he completed his apprenticeship with Cormon, Lautrec devoted himself entirely to the bohemian life, spending much of his time drinking and drinking. He constantly painted in cabarets, racing tracks and brothels.

Henri’s short physique caused him laughter and contempt, because of this he could not experience the physical pleasures offered in Montmartre, this became his grief, which he drowned in alcohol.

At first it was beer and wine. Then brandy, whiskey, and absinthe.

Ernest Dowson 1867-1900

Dawson was a novelist and short story writer. He was one of the most famous “decadents”, and definitely an absinthe drinker of his period.

Oscar Wilde famously commented on Dawson’s heavy absinthe use, pointing out that if Dawson hadn’t been drinking absinthe, he simply wouldn’t be Dawson…

Ernest Downson died at the very young age of 32, due in large part to his alcoholism.

His father and mother had died just a few years earlier, the grief of losing both parents was very heavy for Downson.

Alfred Jarry 1873-1907

French playwright and satirist, who is mainly known as the creator of the grotesque and wild satirical farce “Ubu Roi” written in 1896 (also “King Ubu”), which was the forerunner of the Theater of the Absurd.

Alfred Jarry has written in a variety of styles, and his work includes plays, novels, poetry, and journalism.

He was known in Parisian cafes for drinking heavily, and it is rumored that a couple of bottles of wine and 5-10 absinthes, which he called the “Green Goddess”, were common to him.

There is also a legend that says that he once painted his face green and rode around the city on a bicycle in honor of absinthe.

Ernest Hemingway 1899-1961

The most famous lover of absinthe to a wide range of people.

В своей книге «Смерть после полудня» есть такие слова «С возрастом было всё сложнее выходить на ринг, не выпив три или четыре абсента, который, распаляя мою храбрость, несколько расстраивал рефлексы». Также в своём романе «По ком звонит колокол» Хемингуэй наделил главного героя Роберта Джордана привычкой пить абсент по вечерам своеобразным способом, приведённым выше.

In the novel The Garden of Eden, Hemingway recommends placing a glass with ice and a small hole at the bottom on a glass of absinthe so that the water drips gradually.

The writer even came up with the Death Afternoon cocktail for a collection of celebrity favorite drinks. “Pour one shot of absinthe into a champagne glass. Add ice champagne, shake a little until it reaches an opal haze. Drink slowly three to five glasses of this cocktail.

Hemingway was a big “fan” of the drink, he drank absinthe long before it was banned.

Хемингуэй также несколько раз посещал Кубу, где также производили абсент, и более чем вероятно, что он привозил запрещенные бутылки с собой во Флориду.

Hemingway committed suicide in 1961.

11 ways to drink absinthe

Relevance: 06.10.2019

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