![\"Bar](\"https:\/\/marksaywriter.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Bar-at-Folies-Bergere.jpg\")
<\/a> \u201cYes love!\u201d<\/p>\nHer accent was Thames Estuary, not French, but I could ignore it. I fumbled with my wallet, paying more attention to her expression. It was just right.<\/p>\n
\u201cAre you being served?\u201d<\/p>\n
I just let my smile grow broader. Her expression changed, conveying a hint of irritation, but I was sure she would forgive me when I explained. She\u2019d appreciate the charm in the explanation.<\/p>\n
\u201cDo you want a drink?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSorry, yes. Two pints of London Pride.\u201d<\/p>\n
She took two glasses from the shelf below the mirror and moved a couple of feet to the left to pull at the pump. As the first glass filled she glanced at me, a hint of suspicion in her eyes, then stared down as she pulled the second pint. It was only when the drinks were in front of me and she was returning my change that I told her what it was about.<\/p>\n
\u201cForgive me for staring,\u201d I said. \u201cIt was just the way you stood in front of me. It was just like A Bar at the Folies-Bergere.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cA what?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cA Bar at the Folies-Bergere. It\u2019s a famous painting by Eduoard Manet. He\u2019s looking at a girl who\u2019s serving at a bar. She looks just like you.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cUh!\u201d<\/p>\n
It meant nothing to her. I wasn\u2019t put out.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe painting\u2019s in London,\u201d is said. \u201cIt\u2019s in the Courtauld Gallery in Somerset House, on The Strand.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her face was blank. So she wasn\u2019t an art lover. It didn\u2019t matter.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou should check it out,\u201d I said. \u201cYou\u2019ll be pleasantly surprised.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause there\u2019s a girl in a painting, who looks like me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes. It\u2019s a very famous painting. A lot of men have admired her, for more than a hundred years now.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cA hundred years!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was painted in the 1880s.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSo she\u2019s dead!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course. But she\u2019s remembered because of the picture, even though no-one knows her name.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cReally.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe painter preserved her beauty.\u201d<\/p>\n
New customers were at both of my shoulders. The barmaid looked to the woman to my right and asked what she wanted. She began to serve without a glance towards me. I smiled to myself, thought that I had brought a little something to the barmaid\u2019s life. Maybe she would go to see the painting. Maybe next time I came she would be grateful that I had pointed out the resemblance. I went back to our table. Simon had clearly noticed the conversation.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou didn\u2019t tell her.\u201d<\/p>\n
He spoke as if the idea amused him.<\/p>\n
\u201cI did.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDid she know what you were talking about?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo. But give her a chance.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve spent too much time staring at that painting.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a great work of art.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a great work of art and you fancy the girl.\u201d<\/p>\n
We sipped at our beers and talked about cricket, while I sneaked a couple of glances at the girl behind the bar. I didn\u2019t notice her looking towards me, but I did see her speak to the pub\u2019s manager. Maybe she was asking if he knew anything about the painting. Simon raised a subject we had spoken about before, the pair of us spending a couple of weeks in the Caribbean the next time England played a test series against the West Indies. It was a nice idea, within our incomes if we looked for cheap flights and hotels, and I was just beginning to take it seriously. Then there was a pat on my shoulder and the manager crouched beside me.<\/p>\n
\u201cSorry sir, but I understand you\u2019ve been talking to Keeley behind the bar.\u201d<\/p>\n
Keeley. I didn\u2019t know that was her name. Not at all 1880s Paris. I said that was right.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell she\u2019s upset. She thinks you were trying to weird her out.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWeird her out?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSaying she looks like a dead woman.\u201d<\/p>\n
I smiled at him. He was articulate and smartly dressed; I thought he could well know what I had been talking about.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, it wasn\u2019t like that. I was just telling her that she looks a lot a girl in a famous painting. Do you know A Bar at the Folies-Bergere? Eduoard Manet?\u201d<\/p>\n
He smiled and shook his head. So he knew nothing about art. But surely he would appreciate the charm of the idea.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe didn\u2019t like it,\u201d he said. \u201cShe didn\u2019t like you staring at her either.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cStaring! Well \u2026..\u201d<\/p>\n
I had to admit that I had stared, but I had to explain that it was to make a point about her resemblance to the girl in the painting.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe feels very uncomfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWell I\u2019m sorry.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSo I\u2019ll have to ask you to leave.\u201d<\/p>\n
I didn\u2019t know what to say. I was shocked at thinking I could have \u2018weirded out\u2019 the girl so badly, and I had never been thrown out of anywhere before.<\/p>\n
\u201cPlease.\u201d Simon broke in. \u201cHe didn\u2019t mean any harm.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWell that may be so, but I can\u2019t allow customers to make my staff feel threatened.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThreatened?\u201d I said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s a bit strong,\u201d Simon said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s how she feels,\u201d said the manager. \u201cSo I\u2019m asking you politely to finish your drink in the next two minutes and then leave the pub. Otherwise I\u2019ll have to take the appropriate action.\u201d He looked at Simon. \u201cThat doesn\u2019t apply to you sir. You\u2019re welcome to stay.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBut this is ridiculous.\u201d<\/p>\n
He stood up and repeated: \u201cTwo minutes, and I\u2019m afraid you can\u2019t return.\u201d Then he returned to the bar.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wonder what \u2018appropriate action\u2019 means?\u201d said Simon.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is ludicrous.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe your average barmaid isn\u2019t impressed by being compared to a painting of a woman who must have died, when, at least eighty years ago. Maybe she feels violated.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cViolated! Don\u2019t you start!\u201d<\/p>\n
He was smiling.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo we had better drink up and go down to The Plough,\u201d he said. \u201cAt least they serve a decent pint of Ruddles.\u201d<\/p>\n
He glugged down the rest of his drink. I was too annoyed to touch mine, but when Simon stood I followed. As we left I turned around and looked to the bar. The barmaid was watching. She shot me a filthy look.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou been barred from a pub before?\u201d asked Simon.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSo now you\u2019ve got some street cred.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t want street cred thank you.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A few days later I went back to the Courtauld Gallery. The incident in the pub had left me with a lingering sense of embarrassment, even if I had been the victim of ignorance, and I wanted the comfort of the painting. I had always been engrossed in the conviviality of the bar and the sad eyed welcome of the girl, the feeling that she would respond to a small kindness. I went to the first floor, straight to the room where it hung and looked into the girl\u2019s eyes.<\/p>\n
She wasn\u2019t there. Instead of the vulnerable young woman from 1880s Paris I saw Keeley from the pub in Fulham. On the surface she was the same, but now her eyes were wary, her lips tight. She looked bored and belligerent. I kept looking, trying to find the girl I knew from all the other times I had stared at the painting; but Keeley remained, her expression hinting at a sneer.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat are you looking at?\u201d<\/p>\n
Her voice was in my head, but I couldn\u2019t ignore it.<\/p>\n
\u201cAre you trying to weird me out?\u201d<\/p>\n
I shook my head, and almost expected to feel the pub manager\u2019s hand on my shoulder. Keeley kept staring at me. I turned around and walked out of the room.<\/p>\n
I barred myself from the gallery.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
(Thanks to Eduoard Manet for that one – I’ll always gaze at that girl for a while when I visit the Courtald)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The moment came. A space had cleared at the bar, the girl saw me waiting to be served, approached and we were face to face. She was dressed in black, no frilly collar or neck pendant like the girl in the painting, but her palms were against the edge of the bar and I could … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-57","page","type-page","status-publish"],"yoast_head":"\nA Bar at the Folies Fulham - MARK SAY<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Short story based on the Manet painting A Bar at the Folies Bergere\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/marksaywriter.com\/index.php\/a-bar-at-the-folies-fulham\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Bar at the Folies Fulham - MARK SAY\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Short story based on the Manet painting A Bar at the Folies Bergere\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/marksaywriter.com\/index.php\/a-bar-at-the-folies-fulham\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"MARK SAY\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-09-26T17:15:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/marksaywriter.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Bar-at-Folies-Bergere.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"7 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/marksaywriter.com\/index.php\/a-bar-at-the-folies-fulham\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/marksaywriter.com\/index.php\/a-bar-at-the-folies-fulham\/\",\"name\":\"A Bar at the Folies Fulham - 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