While the history of art remained an important touchstone and source of inspiration for John Brack throughout his career, The bar is one of the few works of his in which there is a direct connection to artistic precedent. Here, Brack restates the subject of Édouard Manet’s famous painting A bar at the Folies-Bergère, 1882, in a contemporary guise, replacing the opulence of 1880s Paris with the austerity of 1950s Melbourne. Under the watchful eye of the stern barmaid, a band of near-identical workers urgently drink their fill before the six o’clock closing that was enforced in Melbourne pubs until 1966.