Édouard Manet (1832–1883)
Detail; The Execution of Emperor Maximilian, c. 1868
Oil on canvas
Height: 252 cm (99.2 in); Width: 305 cm (10 ft)
Kunsthalle Mannheim, Germany
Édouard Manet (23 January 1832 – 30 April 1883) was a French modernist painter. He was born in Paris, to an affluent and well-connected family. His uncle, Edmond Fournier, encouraged him to pursue painting and took young Manet to the Louvre. In 1845, at the advice of his uncle, Manet enrolled in a special course of drawing .
From 1850 to 1856, Manet studied under the academic painter Thomas Couture. In his spare time, Manet copied the Old Masters in the Louvre.
From 1853 to 1856, Manet visited Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands, during which time he was influenced by the Dutch painter Frans Hals, and the Spanish artists Diego Velázquez and Francisco José de Goya.
Édouard Manet, (1832–1883)
Le Buveur d'absinthe/ The Absinthe Drinker, c. 1859
Oil on canvas
Height: 1,805 mm (71.06 in); Width: 1,056 mm (41.57 in)
Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen, Denmark
The Absinthe Drinker (French: Le Buveur d'absinthe) is an early painting by Édouard Manet, c.1859, considered to be his first major painting and first original work.
The Absinthe Drinker is a full-length portrait of an alcoholic chiffonnier named Collardet who frequented that area around the Louvre in Paris. Collardet is standing, wears a black top hat and is wrapped in a brown cloak, like an aristocrat; he leans on a ledge with the empty bottle discarded on the floor by his feet. Manet later added a half-full glass of absinthe on the ledge. More on this painting
In 1856, Manet opened a studio. Adopting the current style of realism initiated by Gustave Courbet, he painted The Absinthe Drinker (1858–59) and other contemporary subjects such as beggars, singers, Gypsies, people in cafés, and bullfights.
Édouard Manet, (1832–1883)
Jesus Mocked by the Soldiers, between circa 1865
Oil on canvas
Height: 190.8 cm (75.1 in); Width: 148.3 cm (58.3 in)
Art Institute of Chicago
The work depicts the moment when Jesus’s captors mock the “King of the Jews” by crowning him with thorns and covering him with a robe. Although, according to the Gospel story, this taunting was followed by beatings, Manet’s soldiers appear ambivalent as they surround the pale, denuded figure. In these ways Manet managed to present a traditional subject in a contemporary, challenging light. More on this painting
After his early career, he rarely painted religious, mythological, or historical subjects; examples include his Christ Mocked, and Christ with Angels.
Édouard Manet, (1832–1883)
The Dead Christ with Angels, c. 1864
Oil on canvas
70 5/8 x 59 in. (179.4 x 149.9 cm)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Édouard Manet (1832–1883)
Monsieur and Madame Auguste Manet, c. 1860
Parents of Edouard Manet
Oil on canvas Edit this at Wikidata
Height: 111.5 cm (43.8 in) Width: 93 cm (36.6 in) Edit this at Wikidata
Musée d'Orsay
Manet had two canvases accepted at the Salon in 1861. A portrait of his mother and father was ill-received by critics. The other, The Spanish Singer, was placed in a more conspicuous location as a result of its popularity with Salon-goers.
Édouard Manet (1832–1883)
The Spanish Singer, c. 860
Oil on canvas
58 x 45 in. (147.3 x 114.3 cm)
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Music in the Tuileries is an early example of Manet's painterly style. Inspired by Hals and Velázquez, it is a harbinger of his lifelong interest in the subject of leisure.
Édouard Manet (1832–1883)
Music in the Tuileries, c. 1862
Oil on canvas
Height: 76.2 cm (30 in); Width: 118.1 cm (46.4 in)
National Gallery, Central London
This painting of the Tuileries Gardens in Paris was Manet's first major work depicting modern city life. The band is playing and a fashionable crowd has gathered to listen. The picture includes portraits of Manet's friends and family. These include Manet himself as well as: Baudelaire - poet (1821 - 1867); Théophile Gautier - poet and novelist (1811 - 1872); Ignace Fantin-Latour - flower-painter (1836 - 1904); Jacques Offenbach (1819 - 1880) - composer; Eugène - the artist's brother (1833 - 1892).
Manet himself stands at the far left of the picture holding a cane, his body cut by the edge of the canvas and partly obscured by the man in front of him, the animal painter Comte Albert de Balleroy. He is a participant in the scene but also slightly detached from it. More on this painting
Édouard Manet (1832–1883)
Le déjeuner sur l'herbe/ Luncheon on the Grass, c. 1863
Oil on canvas
208 x 264.5 cm (81.9 in × 104.1 in)
Musée d'Orsay
The Luncheon was posed in the dining room of the Manet house.
His work, The Luncheon on the Grass (Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe), originally Le Bain was rejected by the Paris Salon in 1863, so Manet agreed to exhibit it at the Salon des Refusés, an alternative exhibition in the Palais des Champs-Elysée.
The painting's juxtaposition of fully dressed men and a nude woman was controversial, as was its abbreviated, sketch-like handling, an innovation that distinguished Manet. At the same time, Manet's composition reveals his study of the old masters, as the disposition of the main figures is derived from Marcantonio Raimondi's engraving of the Judgement of Paris (c. 1515) based on a drawing by Raphael.
Manet employed model Victorine Meurent, his wife Suzanne, future brother-in-law Ferdinand Leenhoff, and one of his brothers to pose. Meurent also posed for several more of Manet's important paintings including Olympia; and by the mid-1870s she became an accomplished painter in her own right.
Two additional works cited by scholars as important precedents for Le déjeuner sur l'herbe are Pastoral Concert and The Tempest, both of which are attributed variously to Italian Renaissance masters Giorgione or Titian.
Édouard Manet (1832–1883)
Olympia, c. 1863
Oil on canvas
Height: 130 cm (51.1 in); Width: 190 cm (74.8 in)
Musée d'Orsay
As he had in Luncheon on the Grass, Manet again paraphrased a respected work by a Renaissance artist in the painting Olympia (1863), a nude portrayed in a style reminiscent of early studio photographs, but whose pose was based on Titian's Venus of Urbino (1538). The painting is also reminiscent of Francisco Goya's painting The Nude Maja (1800).
Manet embarked on the canvas after being challenged to give the Salon a nude painting to display. His uniquely frank depiction of a self-assured prostitute was accepted by the Paris Salon in 1865, where it created a scandal. According to Antonin Proust, "only the precautions taken by the administration prevented the painting being punctured and torn" by offended viewers.
After the death of his father in 1862, Manet married Suzanne Leenhoff in 1863. Leenhoff was a Dutch-born piano teacher two years Manet's senior with whom he had been romantically involved for approximately ten years. Leenhoff initially had been employed by Manet's father, Auguste, to teach Manet and his younger brother piano. She also may have been Auguste's mistress. In 1852, Leenhoff gave birth, out of wedlock, to a son, Leon Koella Leenhoff.
Édouard Manet, (1832–1883)
Woman reading, rom 1878 to 1879
Oil on canvas
Height : 61.0 cm; Width : 50.0 cm
Art Institute of Chicago
Manet painted his wife in The Reading, among other paintings. Her son, Leon Leenhoff, whose father may have been either of the Manets, posed often for Manet. Most famously, he is the subject of the Boy Carrying a Sword. He also appears as the boy carrying a tray in the background of The Balcony.
Édouard Manet (1832–1883)
Boy Carrying a Sword, c. 1861
Oil on canvas
Height: 131.1 cm (51.6 in); Width: 93.3 cm (36.7 in)
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The work features a small boy, apparently a seventeenth century Spanish court page, holding a full-size sword and belt. Leon Koella-Leenhoff, Édouard Manet's stepson, recalled posing for the work at around the age of ten. The painting has been interpreted as a tribute to the great Spanish painters that Manet admired, and is recognised to be heavily influenced by the works of Velazquez and Hals. More on this painting
Unlike the core Impressionist group, Manet maintained that modern artists should seek to exhibit at the Paris Salon rather than abandon it in favor of independent exhibitions. Nevertheless, when Manet was excluded from the International Exhibition of 1867, he set up his own exhibition.
Manet resisted involvement in Impressionist exhibitions, partly because he did not wish to be seen as the representative of a group identity, and partly because he preferred to exhibit at the Salon.
He was influenced by the Impressionists, especially Monet and Morisot. Their influence is seen in Manet's use of lighter colors: after the early 1870s he made less use of dark backgrounds but retained his distinctive use of black, uncharacteristic of Impressionist painting.
Édouard Manet (1832–1883)
Méry Laurent au chapeau de loutre, c. 1882
Oil on canvas
Height: 54 cm (21.2 in); Width: 34 cm (13.3 in)
Private collection
One of Manet's frequent models at the beginning of the 1880s was the "semimondaine" Méry Laurent, who posed for seven portraits in pastel. Laurent's salons hosted many French (and even American) writers and painters of her time; Manet had connections and influence through such events.
Édouard Manet (1832–1883)
The Café-Concert, c. 1879
Cabaret de Reischoffen, Boulevard de Rochechouart, Paris
Oil on canvas
Height: 47.3 cm (18.6 in); Width: 39.1 cm (15.3 in)
Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, Maryland
Edouard Manet (1832–1883)
Cabaret by Reichshoffen, c. 1878
Oil on canvas
78 × 84 cm (30.7 × 33 in)
Oskar Reinhart Collection at the Römerholz
Manet's paintings of café scenes are observations of social life in 19th-century Paris. People are depicted drinking beer, listening to music, flirting, reading, or waiting. Manet often visited the Brasserie Reichshoffen on boulevard de Rochechourt, upon which he based At the Cafe in 1878. Several people are at the bar, and one woman confronts the viewer while others wait to be served. These are painted in a style which is loose, yet they capture the mood and feeling of Parisian night life. They are painted snapshots of bohemianism, urban working people, as well as some of the bourgeoisie.
Édouard Manet (1832–1883)
Corner of a Café-Concert, from 1878 until 1880
Oil on canvas
Height: 97.1 cm (38.2 in); Width: 77.5 cm (30.5 in)
National Gallery, London
This work was originally the right half of a painting of the Brasserie de Reichshoffen, begun in about 1878 and cut in two by Manet before he completed it. This half was then enlarged on the right and a new background was added. The left half of the composition is in the Museum Oskar Reinhart, Winterthur.
In Corner of a Cafe Concert, a man smokes while behind him a waitress serves drinks.
The Brasserie de Reichshoffen was in the Boulevard Rochechouart, Paris. At the time, brasseries with waitresses were fairly new in the city. More on this painting
Édouard Manet (1832–1883)
Chez le père Lathuille, c. 1879
Oil on canvas
Height: 92 cm (36.2 in); Width: 112 cm (44 in)
Musée des Beaux-Arts Tournai, Belgium
Manet also sat at the restaurant on the Avenue de Clichy called Pere Lathuille's, which had a garden in addition to the dining area. One of the paintings he produced here was Chez le père Lathuille (At Pere Lathuille's), in which a man displays an unrequited interest in a woman dining near him.
Édouard Manet, French, 1832 - 1883
Le Bon Bock, c. 1873
Oil on canvas
Height: 946.91 mm (37.27 in); Width: 833.63 mm (32.82 in)
Philadelphia Museum of Art
In Le Bon Bock (1873), a large, cheerful, bearded man sits with a pipe in one hand and a glass of beer in the other, looking straight at the viewer.
Édouard Manet (1832–1883)
Masked Ball at the Opera, c. 1873
Oil on canvas
Height: 59.1 cm (23.2 in); Width: 72.5 cm (28.5 in)
National Gallery of Art
The elegant men and coquettish young women are attending a masked ball held each year during Lent. There is little doubt about the risqué nature of the evening, where masked young women, likely respectable ladies concealing their identities, scantily clad members of the Parisian demimonde, and well–dressed young men all mingle together.
Manet sketched the scene on site, but painted it over a period of months in his studio. He posed several of his friends—noted writers, artists, and musicians—and even included himself in the crowded scene. He is probably the bearded blond man at right who looks out toward the viewer. More on this painting
Manet painted the upper class enjoying more formal social activities. In Masked Ball at the Opera, Manet shows a lively crowd of people enjoying a party. Men stand with top hats and long black suits while talking to women with masks and costumes.
Édouard Manet (1832–1883)
The Races at Longchamp, c. 1866
Oil on canvas
Height: 44 cm (17.3 in)
Art Institute of Chicago
Manet depicted other popular activities in his work. In The Races at Longchamp, an unusual perspective is employed to underscore the furious energy of racehorses as they rush toward the viewer.
Édouard Manet (1832–1883)
Skating, c. 1877
Oil on canvas
Height: 92 cm (36.2 in); Width: 71.6 cm (28.1 in)
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum
In Skating, Manet shows a well dressed woman in the foreground, while others skate behind her. Always there is the sense of active urban life continuing behind the subject, extending outside the frame of the canvas.
Edouard Manet (1832–1883)
View of the Universal Exhibition of Paris, c. 1867
Oil on canvas
Height: 108 cm (42.5 in); Width: 196 cm (77.1 in)
National Gallery of Norway
In View of the International Exhibition, soldiers relax, seated and standing, prosperous couples are talking. There is a gardener, a boy with a dog, a woman on horseback—in short, a sample of the classes and ages of the people of Paris.
Édouard Manet (1832–1883)
The Kearsarge at Boulogne, c. 1864
Oil on canvas
Height: 81.6 cm (32.1 in); Width: 100 cm (39.3 in)
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Édouard Manet (1832–1883)
The Battle of the Kearsarge and the Alabama,c. 1864
Oil on canvas
134 × 127 cm (52.7 × 50 in)
Philadelphia Museum of Art
Manet's response to modern life included works devoted to war, in subjects that may be seen as updated interpretations of the genre of "history painting". The first such work was the Battle of the Kearsarge and Alabama (1864), a sea skirmish known as the Battle of Cherbourg from the American Civil War which took place off the French coast, and may have been witnessed by the artist.
Édouard Manet (1832–1883)
The Execution of Emperor Maximilian, c. 1868
Oil on canvas
Height: 252 cm (99.2 in); Width: 305 cm (10 ft)
Kunsthalle Mannheim, Germany
Of interest next was the French intervention in Mexico; from 1867 to 1869 Manet painted three versions of the Execution of Emperor Maximilian, an event which raised concerns regarding French foreign and domestic policy. Its subject is the execution by Mexican firing squad of a Habsburg emperor who had been installed by Napoleon III. Neither the paintings nor a lithograph of the subject were permitted to be shown in France.
Édouard Manet (1832–1883)
The Rue Mosnier with Flags, c. 1878
Oil on canvas
65.4 x 80 cm (25 3/4 x 31 1/2 in.)
J. Paul Getty Museum
To commemorate the recent Exposition Universelle, itself a celebration of luxury and prosperity, the French government declared June 30, 1878, a national holiday. The holiday, called the Fête de la Paix (Celebration of Peace), also marked France's recovery from the disastrous Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871 and the bloody, divisive Paris Commune that followed. From his second-floor window, Édouard Manet captured the holiday afternoon with his most precise, staccato brushwork in a patriotic harmony of the reds, whites, and blues of the French flag that waves from the new buildings' windows. More on this painting
Manet depicted many scenes of the streets of Paris in his works. The Rue Mosnier Decked with Flags depicts red, white, and blue pennants covering buildings on either side of the street.
Édouard Manet (1832–1883)
Paveurs de la Rue Mosnier/ Road-menders in the Rue Mossnier, c. 1878
Oil on canvas
Height: 63 cm (24.8 in); Width: 79 cm (31.1 in)
Private collection
Another painting of the same title features a one-legged man walking with crutches. Again depicting the same street, but this time in a different context, is Rue Mosnier with Pavers, in which men repair the roadway while people and horses move past.
Claude Monet (1840–1926)
Arrival of the Normandy Train, Gare Saint-Lazare, c.1877
Oil on canvas
Height: 596 mm (23.46 in); Width: 802 mm (31.57 in)
Art Institute of Chicago
Édouard Manet (1832–1883)
Le chemin de fer/ The Railway, c. 1873
Oil on canvas
Height: 93.3 cm (36.7 in); Width: 111.5 cm (43.8 in)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C
The Railway, widely known as The Gare Saint-Lazare, was painted in 1873. The setting is the urban landscape of Paris in the late 19th century. Using his favorite model in his last painting of her, a fellow painter, Victorine Meurent, also the model for Olympia and the Luncheon on the Grass, sits before an iron fence holding a sleeping puppy and an open book in her lap. Next to her is a little girl with her back to the painter, watching a train pass beneath them.
Édouard Manet (1832–1883)
Boating/ En bateau, c. 1874
Oil on canvas
Height: 97.2 cm (38.2 in); Width: 130.2 cm (51.2 in)
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Manet painted several boating subjects in 1874. Boating exemplifies in its conciseness the lessons Manet learned from Japanese prints, and the abrupt cropping by the frame of the boat and sail adds to the immediacy of the image.
In 1881, with pressure from his friend Antonin Proust, the French government awarded Manet the Légion d'honneur.
Édouard Manet (1832–1883)
Portrait of Émilie Ambre as Carmen, c. 1880
Oil on canvas
Height: 92.4 cm (36.3 in); Width: 73.5 cm (28.9 in)
Philadelphia Museum of Art
In his mid-forties Manet's health deteriorated, and he developed severe pain and partial paralysis in his legs. In 1879 he began receiving hydrotherapy treatments at a spa near Meudon intended to improve what he believed was a circulatory problem, but in reality he was suffering from locomotor ataxia, a known side-effect of syphilis. In 1880, he painted a portrait there of the opera singer Émilie Ambre as Carmen.
Edouard Manet (1832–1883)
A Bar at the Folies-Bergère, c. 1885
Oil on canvas
96 cm (37.7 in)
Courtauld Gallery, London
In April 1883, his left foot was amputated because of gangrene, due to complications from syphilis and rheumatism. He died eleven days later on 30 April in Paris. More on Édouard Manet
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