Discover the Subtle Details in These Paintings That Are Easily Missed

How learning to look helps us notice more

A Bar at the Folies-Bergère (1881–1882) by Édouard Manet. Oil on canvas. 96 × 130 cm. Courtauld Institute of Art, London, UK. Image source Wikimedia Commons

Édouard Manet’s painting A Bar at the Folies-Bergère has long been one of my favourite works of art. I’ve been looking at it for years, but it took me a long time to notice one tiny detail that easily goes unnoticed.

The image shows a scene from the Folies-Bergère, a popular entertainment venue in Paris not far from Montmartre.

Detail from ‘A Bar at the Folies-Bergère’ (1881–1882) by Édouard Manet. Oil on canvas. 96 × 130 cm. Courtauld Institute of Art, London, UK. Image source Wikimedia Commons

The tiny detail I’m talking about occurs in the top-left corner of the painting. Notice a pair of legs with green shoes on.

These legs belong to a trapeze artist swinging high above the audience. What I like about this detail is its humour and also how it suggests that a lively, raucous evening at the Folies-Bergère is now underway.

A Bar at the Folies-Bergère (1881–1882) by Édouard Manet. Oil on canvas. 96 × 130 cm. Courtauld Institute of Art, London, UK. Image source Wikimedia Commons

Moreover, the detail helps to unlock the wider composition of the painting.