Waitress Serving Bocks
by MANET, Edouard, Oil on canvas, 77 x 65 cm
In this painting, Manet shows an apparently fleetingly captured moment in one of the caf�-concerts. The caf�-concerts were large coffee houses with a changing program of entertainment. These were especially popular with Parisians.
The busy young waitress is gazing out from the painting in the direction of the onlooker. She has just served the beer that has been set down in the bottom left-hand corner of the picture to the man smoking a pipe. In her left hand she is still holding two more glasses for other customers.
Another painting, the Corner of a Caf�-Concert, executed at the same time and showing the same figures, can be seen in the National Gallery, London.