"It was the favorite drink in Paris in the Belle Époque, muse of bohemian musicians and writers, of the Moulin Rouge and the cafes of Montmartre, a world plenty of starving struggling artists and glittering courtesans.
In the early works of Pablo Picasso, one of the most important in the so called "Blue Period" is a painting from 1901 titled "Woman Drinking Absinthe" that shows a woman dressed in blue with elongated hands and fingers, sitting at the corner of a table in a Parisian cafe with
a glass of Absinthe in front her. Picasso declared once that his earliest cubist works were inspired by Absinthe, including one named "Bottle of Pernod and Glass" painted in 1912, directly based on the Pernod publicity posters designed by Maire, picturing a bottle
of Absinthe, a glass, and a folded newspaper.
American writer Ernest Hemingway was a heavy drinker, and a passionate lover of Absinthe, which he continued drinking in Spain and Cuba, after it was banned in France.
His most notable mention of Absinthe can be found in his Spanish Civil War novel, "For Whom The Bell Tolls". In that story the hero is an American guerrilla leader on a mission to blow up a bridge, and one of his few comforts is Absinthe, called "the liquid alchemy" which can replace everything else and irresistibly recalls the better life he had known in Paris.
It would be impossible to summarize in such a brief space all the artists and works which,
one way or another featured Absinthe as a source of inspiration. This unique liqueur has been enjoyed by many famous poets and artists throughout time including Van Gogh,
Monet, and Oscar Wilde. Contemporary drinkers include famous celebrities such as
Johnny Depp, Leonardo DiCaprio, and musicians including Eminem and Marilyn Manson."