"Berthe Pascault “the Green Fairy With Roses”"
Berthe PascaultLa Fée Verte aux Roses
Green Fairy with Roses
Hand-painted polychromed oil on porcelain
Signed lower left
Original gilt wood frame
Circa 1900
Dimensions plaque H 15 cm L 11,5 cm
H 26 cm L 23 cm P 5 cm
The Green Fairy symbolized... the Absinthe, also called “the green fairy”, the muse of writers, from Baudelaire and Rimbaud to Joyce and Hemingway. The drink that «turn you crazy» and which was long forbidden to consume.
On the side of glory, lithographs by Daumier, paintings by Van Gogh, verses by Rimbaud or Verlaine... the image of the green fairy is marked by these representations of the Belle Époque, magnified by artists who sometimes describe her as a true muse. Outside this circle, absinthe was widely consumed in France, where it became in the 1900s the aperitif par excellence on the terraces of large cities. Curiously enough, it was the military who, back from the colonies, started the fashion! In Africa, a few drops of absinthe purified the water they drank.
The «Belle époque» Style or Modern Style was short-lived. It is placed between 1895 and 1910. Artists who took turns to become architects, decorators, glass makers or sculptors (such as Majorelle, Guimard, Gallé, Gaillard, Plumet, de Feure, and Selmersheim) while drawing inspiration from the Gothic and Rococo arts, Louis XV and Louis XVI styles, create a new art inspired by nature, women, flowers and insects.
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