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Beer In Art #137: A View of the Genuine Beer Brewery Golden Lane

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art-beer
This week’s work of art is by Gerard de la Barthe, a 18th century French artist, as re-created by an English printmaker, painter and draughtsman named J.S. Barth. The painting/print is known as A View of the Genuine Beer Brewery Golden Lane, Established 1804.

view-of-the-genuine-beer-brewery

One of the original prints is in the collection of the British Museum, which was completed in 1807. The scene depicts the brewery in a wide angle shot that also shows part of the city of London from the same year.

Unfortunately, there’s little information about the original artist, Gerard de la Barthe.

Beer In Art #136: Gustave Dore’s Barclay Perkins Brewery Workers

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art-beer
This week’s work of art is by the French artist known for his engravings, on wood and steel, along with his simple drawings, Gustave Doré, who did at least a couple of drawings in pencil, pen and ink of Barclay Perkins Brewery Workers.

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One of the most well-known, titled Ouvriers Brasseurs de Barclay Perkins, or Barclay Perkins Brewery Workers, which was completed in 1870, today hangs in the Musée d’Art Moderne et Contemporain de Strasbourg (in English the Strasbourg Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art).

It depicts the brewers not working, but resting, presumably in the middle of a hard day, still wearing their aprons and forage caps. They’re lounging around some barrels apparently in some unused corner of the brewery.

Dore-Workmen_at_Barclay_Perkin's_Brewery-1872

A second, similar drawing, entitled Workmen at Barclay Perkins’s Brewery is in the British Museum. It was done in 1872 and appears to be some of the same workers, although there are less of them and the space they’re in seems less well-defined. It was created using pen and grey ink, black chalk and graphite. Apparently it was a study done for a book of engravings entitled Doré’s London: A Pilgrimage. In Chapter 16 of the book, with the promising title “The Town of Malt,” three drawings of the Barclay Perkins Brewery appear, “together with an engraving after this drawing showing the workers against a more detailed background and with additional figures.”

You can read Doré’s biography at Wikipedia, and find links to more of his work at ArtCyclopedia. There are a few you can also see at a Woodcut Gallery, the Web Museum, Art Collections, toward the bottom of his Wikipedia page, and Cardiff University has a number of the engravings from Doré’s London.

Beer In Art #134: Jean Beraud’s Open-Air Ball

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This week’s work of art is by a Russian artist, Jean Béraud, though he lived much of his life in France during the Belle Epoque. Open-air Ball, or Le Bal public, was painted in 1880.

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Depicting a typical scene of Paris night life in the 1880s, speculation has the setting being the Closerie des Lilas cafe. People are dancing on the right-hand portion of the painting, but resting with glasses of beer on the left, as shown in a detail of the artwork below.

Beraud-open-air-ball-detail

You can read Béraud’s biography at Wikipedia, and also at the Tate. You can see more of Béraud’s paintings at All Posters and Hoocher.

Beer In Ads #404: Biere Karcher

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Thursday’s ad is for the Brasserie Karcher, from Paris, France. I’m not sure exactly when the ad is from, but I would have to guess late 19th century. The fetching woman holding out two mugs of beers appears to be standing confidently on a keg of Biere Karcher, despite wearing high heels.

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Beer In Art #132: Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s Dance At Bougival

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art-beer
This week’s work of art is by the famous French artist, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, who painted Dance at Bougival, in 1883. Today it hangs in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and remains one of his most famous works of art.

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The website for Boston’s MFA includes a typical description of the painting:

The open-air cafés of suburban Bougival, on the Seine outside Paris, were popular recreation spots for city dwellers, including the Impressionist painters. Renoir, who was primarily a figure painter, uses intense color and lush brushwork to heighten the sense of pleasure conveyed by the whirling couple who dominate the composition. The woman’s face, framed by her red bonnet, is the focus of attention, both ours and her companion’s.

But look closely beyond the dancing couple to the green tale behind them and you’ll see mugs of beer in front of the people seated there.

Renoir-dance-detail

You can read Renoir’s biography at Wikipedia and also at the Web Museum, which also has a gallery of other works, too. Other galleries include Olga’s, the Artchive and a third claims to contain Renoir’s Complete Works.

Beer In Ads #355: Biere Gallia

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Monday’s ad is for an old French brewery, Brasserie de Gallia. The original brewery was founded before 1878 but rechristened New Gallia in 1890, when it moved to Paris. It struggled after World War 2, and eventually closed in 1968. But last year it was relaunched as Gallia Paris. I’m not sure when the ad is from, but 1950s or before seems like a safe bet.

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Beer In Art #117: Michael Marcinkowski’s Nectar Of The Gods

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art-beer
This week’s work of art is by a French illustrator, Michael Marcinkowski, who created a fun play on a portion of Michelangelo’s painting of the Sistine Chapel. He calls his work Le Nectar Des Dieux or Nectar of the Gods and it shows God giving beer to Adam, presumably right after he gave him life.

LE NECTAR DES DIEUX

Today is actually the birthday of Michelangelo (a.k.a. Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simon), who was born in 1475 near Tuscany in what today is Italy. Marcinkowski took the hands from a portion of Michelangelo’s painting of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, which is meant to represent God giving life to Adam.

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That scene makes up the central portion of the fresco in the Vatican showing Adam and God.

Michelangelo-creation

Muppets Drink Kronenbourg 1664

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Another one of my many obsessions is my unabashed love of the Muppets. I came across a new video today of the Muppets covering the LCD Soundsystem song Dance Yrself Clean. In the Video, apparently shot in Brighton, both Cookie Monster and Animal are seen drinking Kronenburg 1664 — hey, they’re both over 21 — and in fact at the end (spoiler alert) both pass out on Brighton beach surrounded by beer cans. Enjoy.