Backstage at the Folies-Bergere | Brassaï / Gaston / Jean-Philippe Charbonnier, Paris, 1909-1960

Brassaï, Coulisses des Folies Bergeres, 1930-32 Brassaï, La Cage aux fauves aux Folies Bergère, 1932

Brassaï, Backstage at Folies Bergère, Paris, 1932

Jean-Philippe Charbonnier, Backstage at the Folies Bergère, Paris 1960 Brassaï, ‘The Rainbow’ at Folies Bergere, 1932

Brassa25C325AF252C2BJuan les Pins252C2Baux2BFolies Berg25C325A8res252C2B1932

Brassaï, Juan-les-Pins, aux Folies-Bergères, 1932

Folies Bergere, 1909 Madamoiselle F Fouguet of the Folies Bergere, 1925

Brassaï, Girl at Folies Bergeres, 1932 Gaston Paris, Folies-Bergère, Paris, 1937

James Abbe, Backstage at the Folies Bergere, 1926 Folies Bergere, 1920

In 1882, Édouard Manet painted his well-known painting A Bar at the Folies-Bergère, a bar-girl, one of the demimondaines, standing before a mirror.

Folies-Bergère

It opened on 2 May 1869 as the Folies Trévise, with light entertainment including
operettas, opéra comique (comic opera), popular songs, and gymnastics.
It became the Folies Bergère on 13 September 1872, named after
a nearby street, the rue Bergère (“bergère” means “shepherdess”).

A2BBar2Bat2Bthe2BFolies Berg25C325A8re2B252C2B2BL25E225802599Ambulante2B2B 2B2B2BJean Louis2BForian

Jean-Louis Forian, L’Ambulante

“In the vast lobby that leads into the circular promenade, where the gaudily dressed pack of whores prowls about, mingling with the dark-suited crowd of men, a group of women waited for the new arrivals in front of one of the three counters, over which three raddled and rouged vendors of drink and of love were presiding. Behind them, tall mirrors reflected their backs and the faces of the passers-by.”

Guy de Maupassant, Bel Ami, 1885
tr. Margaret Mauldon