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Edgar Degas 1864-65 Edouard Manet, Bust-Length Portrait etching, drypoint, and aquatint on laid paper 13 x 10.5 cm (plate) Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
Édouard Manet (1832 – 1883) was a French painter. He was one of the first 19th century artists to paint modern life, and was a pivotal figure in the transition from Realism to Impressionism. His early masterworks “Le déjeuner sur l’herbe” (The luncheon on the Grass) and “Olympia”, both painted in 1863, caused great controversy and served as rallying points for the young painters who would create Impressionism. Today, these are considered watershed paintings that mark the genesis of modern art.
This is part 2 of a 9 – part post on the works of Édouard Manet. For full biographical notes, and for earlier works, see part 1 also.
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1862 The Balloon lithograph in black on laid paper 40.3 x 50.8 cm (image) National Gallery of Art, Washington DC |
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1862 The Gypsies etching on blue laid paper 30.5 x 23.8 cm Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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1862 The Old Musician oil on canvas 187.4 x 248.2 cm National Gallery of Art, Washington DC |
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1862 The Toilette etching in black on ivory laid China paper 28.5 x 22.2 cm Art Institute of Chicago, IL |
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1862 Young Woman Reclining oil on canvas 93.98 x 113 cm Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT |
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1862-63 Don Mariano Camprubi etching on blue laid paper from 1905 Strölin edition 29.8 x 19.7 cm (plate) Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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1862-63c Fishing oil on canvas 76.8 x 123.2 cm Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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1862-64 Silentium etching on blue laid paper from 1905 Strölin edition 20.3 x 15.1 cm (plate) Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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1862-64 The Infanta Marguerita after Velázquez etching on blue laid paper from 1905 Strölin edition 23.2 x 20.2 cm (plate) Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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Velazquez 1654-55 Infanta Margarita oil on canvas 70 x 59 cm Musée du Louvre, Paris |
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1862-72c Boy with Pitcher oil on canvas 61.8 x 54.3 cm Art Institute of Chicago, IL |
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1862c Gypsy with a Cigarette oil on canvas 92 x 73 cm The Art Museum, Princeton University, New Jersey |
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1862c Jeanne Duval, Baudelaire's Mistress, Reclining (Lady with a Fan) 90 x 113 cm Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest, Hungary |
1862c Street Singer
Manet was inspired by the sight of a woman with a guitar emerging from a sleazy café. She refused to pose for the picture, so Manet employed his favourite model of the 1860s, Victorine Meurent.
No one embodied this new aesthetic better than Victorine Meurent – Manet was to paint her nine times in total, producing two pictures in particular that would shake up the art world forever. The story goes that Manet spotted the 18 year old musician hurrying through the streets and decided she would be the ideal subject to illustrate his new way of seeing the world.
The second time Victorine sat for Manet, something remarkable happened. In Victorine Meurent (c1862) Manet grants her all the attention that a more conventional painter might lavish on a society beauty. She is no longer a generic, anonymous ‘street singer’ but is afforded the honour of being named.
It was though, Manet’s next painting that projected Victorine into the middle of a public scandal. Le déjeuner sur l’herbe(1863) famously shows three people lounging on the grass following what looks like an excellent picnic of fruit and oysters. In many ways it is a typical tableau – except for the fact that although the young men are fully clothed, their female companion is completely naked.
If Le déjeuner sur l’herbe hinted at sexual activity, Olympia (1863) left nothing to the imagination. In it, she appears as a courtesan lying on a rumpled post-coital bed. Leaning towards her is a black maidservant carrying a bouquet that has arrived from a smitten admirer.
Victorine Meurent was to feature in several more paintings by Manet.
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1862c Street Singer oil on canvas 171.1 x 105.8 cm Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA |
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1862c Victorine Meurent oil on canvas 43 x 44 cm Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
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Victorine Meurent, c. 1865 from an album of portraits belonging to Édouard Manet |
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1862c Study of a Seated Nude (La Toilette) red chalk on buff laid paper 28 x 20 cm Art Institute of Chicago, IL |
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1863 Le déjeuner sur l'herbe [Luncheon on the Grass] oil on canvas 208 x 264.5 cm Musée d'Orsay, Paris © RMN-Grand Palais (Musée d'Orsay |
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1863 Lola de Valence etching and aquatint on laid paper 26.4 x 18.1 cm (plate) Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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1863 Lola de Valence lithograph in black on light grey wove paper 24.1 x 21.2 cm (image) Art Institute of Chicago, IL |
1863 Olympia
Manet stated that the composition and inspiration for Olympia had been influenced by similar compositions by Goya and by Titian:
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1863 Olympia oil on canvas 130 x 190 cm Musée d'Orsay, Paris © RMN-Grand Palais (Musée d'Orsay *notes |
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Titian 1538 Venus of Urbino oil on canvas 119.2 x 165.5 cm Uffizi Gallery, Florence |
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Francisco de Goya 1797-1800 Maja desnuda oil on canvas 97 x 190 cm Museo del Prado, Madrid |
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1867 Olympia (large plate) etching on blue laid paper from the 1905 Strölin edition 16.8 x 24 cm (plate) Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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1867 Olympia (small plate) etching in brown ink on laid paper 8.8 x 17.9 cm Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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1864 1864 The "Kearsarge" at Boulogne Ink wash and watercolour on wove paper 24.6 x 35.6 cm Musée des Beaux-Arts de Dijon |
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1864 The "Kearsarge" at Boulogne oil on canvas 81.6 x 100 cm Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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1864 Battle of the U.S.S. 'Kearsarge' and the C.S.S. 'Alabama' oil on canvas 134 x 127 cm Philadelphia Museum of Art, PA |
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1864 Steamboat Leaving Boulogne oil on canvas 73.6 x 92.6 cm Art Institute of Chicago, IL |
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1864-68c Sailing Ships and Seagulls oil on canvas 21 x 26 cm Private Collection |
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1864 Eel and Red Mullet oil on canvas Musée d'Orsay, Paris |
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1864 Fish (Still Life) oil on canvas 73.4 x 92.1 cm Art Institute of Chicago, IL |
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1864 Fruit on a Table oil on canvas 45.1 x 73.3 cm Musée d'Orsay, Paris |
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1864 Peony Stems and Pruning Shears oil on canvas 56.8 x 46.4 cm Musée d'Orsay, Paris |
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1864 Still Life; Fruits on a Table oil on canvas 45 x 73.5 cm Musée d'Orsay, Paris |
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1864 The Dead Christ with Angels oil on canvas 179.4 x 149.9 cm Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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1866-67 Dead Christ with Angels etching and aquatint in brown-black ink on wove paper 39.4 x 32.7 cm (plate) Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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1864 The Races at Longchamp oil on canvas Art Institute of Chicago, IL |
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1865-72 published 1884 The Races lithograph on chine collé 38.7 x 51.1 cm Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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1864 Vase of Peonies on a Small Pedestal oil on canvas 93 x 70 cm Musée d'Orsay, Paris |
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1864-65 Peonies oil on canvas 59.4 x 35.2 Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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1864-65 La Corrida 48 x 108 cm The Frick Collection, New York |
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1864-65c The Head of Christ oil on canvas California Palace of the Legion of Honour, San Francisco |