A woman in a pale dress and elaborate hat sits at a marble-topped café table, her gaze cast downward and her posture slouched, while beside her a man in a dark coat and hat looks away to the right, his arm resting on the table and a pipe in his mouth. A glass filled with a pale green liquid stands before the woman, while a darker drink sits in front of the man, and an empty glass carafe rests on a tray on the table to her left. The composition is structured with strong diagonals formed by the café tables, which recede into space and create a sense of separation between the figures and their surroundings.

Loose, visible brushstrokes and soft edges characterize the painting’s surface, particularly in the rendering of the woman’s dress, the man’s hair, and the shadowy background, while the tables and glassware are painted with greater clarity. Muted tones of cream, brown, grey, and ochre dominate the palette, with the only bright note coming from the greenish absinthe in the woman’s glass. A shadowy reflection of both figures appears on the pale curtain behind them, slightly blurred and indistinct.

The background wall is patterned with a faint diamond grid, adding subtle texture to the upper left of the painting. Light falls most strongly on the woman’s face, hat, and the marble surfaces of the tables, while the man’s face and coat are in deeper shadow. The edges of the painting, especially at the lower right and left, dissolve into loose, sketchy brushwork with little detail.

The woman’s skirt is rendered in deep brown tones with visible, rough brushstrokes that contrast with the smoother treatment of the tables. A red banquette runs horizontally behind the figures, separating them from the softly painted, floral-patterned curtains in the background. Painted by Edgar Degas between 1875 and 1876, L'Absinthe belongs to the movement of Impressionism and depicts a scene in the Café de la Nouvelle Athènes in Paris.