Cultural references to absinthe
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
Revision as of 22:49, 16 March 2013
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Cultural influence
- Cultural references to absinthe
The legacy of absinthe as a mysterious, addictive, and mind-altering drink continues to this day. Absinthe has served as the subject of numerous works of fine art, films, video, music and literature since the mid-19th century.
Numerous artists and writers living in France in the late 19th and early 20th centuries were noted absinthe drinkers who featured absinthe in their work. These included Emile Zola, Vincent van Gogh, Édouard Manet, Amedeo Modigliani, Arthur Rimbaud, Guy de Maupassant, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and Paul Verlaine. Later artists and writers drew from this cultural well, including Pablo Picasso, August Strindberg, Oscar Wilde, and Ernest Hemingway. Aleister Crowley was also known to be a habitual absinthe drinker. Emile Cohl, an early pioneer in the art of animation, presented the effects of the drink in 1920 with the short film, Hasher's Delirium.
The aura of illicitness and mystery surrounding absinthe has played into modern literature, movies, music and television. Such depictions vary in their authenticity, often applying dramatic license to depict the drink as a flaming green neon liquid that ranges from an aphrodisiac to poison, and always seems to be a catalyst of vivid hallucinations.
