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You might not recognize the name of Marcellin Desboutin, but you would know him if you saw him in the street. His is the bearded, dishevelled face staring despairingly out at you from a table in the artists' caf� La Nouvelle Ath�nes in the painting   L'Absinthe (Dans un Caf�) by Edgar Degas. The women sitting next to him is the actress Ellen Andr�; like the rest of the Impressionists, Degas preferred to use members of his immediate social circle rather than paid models. Once you have committed Desboutin's face to memory, you will chance upon it again and again in works by Degas and other artists, including Manet, Monet, Renoir, and Falgui�re; often he is smoking a pipe. His tramp-like appearance made him the ideal sitter if you wanted to paint a down-and-out old drunk. Marcellin Desboutin, Desboutin dit � la bavette (aslo known as Desboutin tenant sa pipe de la main gauche, or as L'auteur fumant, � mi-corps) Drypoint, 1897 Ref: Cl�ment Janin 67 Actually, Marcellin Gilb