This painting amuses me very much. It may sound weird but I find so much charm and kindness in this work. The disordered brushstrokes on the white make-up face give a clown-effect to the woman. She has a funny, tufted hairdo, red rouged duck-lips, a copper-nose, and watermelon-sized boobs.
She is self-assertive and humorous. She is a diverting person who is tough enough to speak as a man and drink as a man in the Parisian nights. That huge red drink on the counter is surely not cranberry juice. Her big, rounded face, her floppy cigarette, and the loving way the painter depicted her figure indicate a swell personality. She is a forerunner of the modern woman of the new century as this painting was made in 1900. So for me, she represents those women who soon will rid off their corsets, cut their hair short wear trousers and can do whatever men can do. They will earn equality in the world war, when they do duty for men who are in the battlefield.
The thin black outlines remind me of Toulouse-Lautrec’s figures and style.This funnily painted lady should be one of the crazy interesting people of the night bars. It is pity not to hear her throaty voice as she shouts at the painter, “You had finally finished, dude?” and she drinks off her glass in one gulp.
