Barcelona, Hemingway and absinthe

I am interested in the Bar Marsella for two important reasons. Firstly it is apparently the oldest bar in Barcelona, opening for business in 1820. Secondly it is apparently where Ernest Hemingway could be found, drinking his absinthe, any night of the week during his period in Barcelona. I know that Hemingway was in Spain for considerable periods during the 1920s and at least twice during the late 1930s, so the connections are possible. And there are definitely references to absinthe in  For Whom the Bell Tolls,  Death in the Afternoon and other of his stories.

And not just Hemingway. I would love to know if Oscar Wilde, Vincent Van Gogh and Henri Toulouse-Lautrec socialised in Bar Marsella, as suggested. Toulouse-Lautrec certainly loved the green drink and created cocktails based on absinthe, but I can't find any specific references to him being in Barcelona.

Bar Marsella

Original Victorian chandeliers, hanging from the shiny ceiling, spread an eerie glow onto the faded bar mirrors, the woodwork and the customers. Lisa Abend noted that there is another glow; the infamous absinthe spirit casts its greenish glow from tables everywhere, including those being used by groups of rowdy students on their Gap Year abroad. I assume their parents don’t realise what their sons and daughters are up to.

Absinthe is unpalatable by itself, so a ritual is required. Each glass of absinthe comes with a lump of sugar, a fork and some water. The drinker holds the sugar on the fork, over the glass, and drips the water onto the sugar until it dissolves into the absinthe, which then changes colour. The warm glow that results is the famous absinthe Green Fairy that writers wrote about and the artists painted. Since Bar Marsella had always and still has a faded bohemian atmosphere, we can assume people visit now for the decadent history of decades past.

Matt Skinner was particularly fascinated with the eating and drinking habits of Barcelona. Noone eats dinner before 9 PM and so the later one gets to Bar Marsella, the better. 11 PM seems perfect. As I am definitely a night person and resent bitterly having to start my day before noon, this is the city for me. However I know why France, Netherlands, Switzerland and other countries permanently banned absinthe between 1910-1914 and I am far too alarmed about potential brain damage to try the drink myself.

Degas, The Absinthe Drinkers, 1876, Musée d'Orsay Paris

Picasso, The Absinth Drinker, 1901, Melville Hall Collection, New York

Both Degas' and Picasso's drinkers may have been creative, bohemian people, socialising in creative, bohemian Paris, but they looked bleary eyed and very sad. Toulouse Lautrec's drinker, on the other hand, was well dressed and looked in control of his environment.

Toulouse Lautrec, Monsieur Boileau at the Cafe, 1893, Cleveland Museum of Art

Thank you to the readers who discussed the paintings and decorative arts associated with absinthe drinking in restaurants and bars. The ritual certainly created a demand for specialist art objects that can be examined in their own right - spoons, glasses, carafes etc. Furthermore there were beautifully designed posters and other commercial ephemera that survived since the Belle Epoque. One wonderful site is Absinthe Originals.

Onlinecollege org published an annotated list of their "15 Most Famous Cafes in the Literary World". As you would expect, La Rotonde and Le Dome Cafe in Montparnasse won first and second place respectively but La Coupole only came 12th and Bar Marsella failed to win a guernsey at all.