What 630,000 paintings say about the world economy

Two figures share a table, but not much companionship, in a Parisian café. The man looks distracted, a pipe gripped in his mouth. The woman, eyes down, shoulders slumped, nurses a glass of moss-green absinthe.

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The painting, unveiled by Edgar Degas in 1876, boasts several titles ("L'Absinthe", "In a Café" and others). It also divides opinion. One viewer, appalled by the woman's loose morning shoes and the thought of her soiled petticoats, saw the painting as a cautionary tale against idleness and "low vice." He then changed his mind. "The picture is merely a work of art," he later said, "and has nothing to do with drink or sociology."

Great paintings can inspire entire volumes of interpretation. The ArtEmis project, which concluded in 2021, took a more concise approach. It recruited people to log their emotional responses to thousands of paintings in a digital archive. These "annotators" could choose one of eight feelings, each illustrated by an emoji. Based on this exercise and a later, bigger project called ArtELingo, complex works of art like Degas's 1876 masterpiece can be succinctly summarised in a handful of numbers. When asked how L'Absinthe makes them feel, over three-fifths of people choose "sadness." Almost a fifth choose amusement. About a tenth pick contentment (perhaps they appreciate roomy footwear). None chooses the other listed emotions: anger, awe, disgust, excitement or fear. A few pick a ninth, residual option: "something else."