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Don 't Get Me Wrong : I Love Museums Essay

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Don’t get me wrong: I love museums. I like reading about the subject weeks in advance. The unspoken rule that one must not speak if not necessary. I like watching people’s pupil’s blossom when a piece sideswipes their senses. The timid way people point at admirable pieces. I like all these aspects of museums and more. That said, if I didn’t see The Absinth Drinkers I doubt I’d value this assignment. The analysis of the Absinth Drinkers will unravel like so: Socioeconomic and historical context first, followed by a description of the composition and lastly a synthesis between the aforementioned forms of analysis. The Absinth Drinkers was painted by the Frenchmen Jean-François Raffaëlli in 1881. The setting is Paris. At the end of the 19th century Paris had growth spurts of 10-20% per year. It had urban sprawl and overcrowding like it had underpaid and overworked newcomers. As put by a Parisian historian and author of The Rise of the Paris Red Belt “From 1851 to 1856, Paris grew by over 20 percent, adding a quarter of a million inhabitants….The greater concentration of Parisian workers was in the outer districts (Stovall 21).” This boom in population begs the question, why were so many people flocking to Paris? The Industrial Revolution was in full swing and as students of economics will remind the idealist: Capitalism far outpaces the dignity of the individual. This axiom took cruel liberties with the Parisian working class. Paris economic boom was largely due to

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