Édouard Manet
(1832-1883)
French
painter Édouard Manet became the leader of a rebellious faction of young
artists when he challenged the established artistic community in France.
With its bold brush strokes and realistic portrayal of everyday events,
Manet's work served as a forerunner of the impressionist movement.
Manet, Édouard (1832-1883), French painter, whose work inspired the
impressionist style, but who refused to so label his own work. His far-reaching
influence on French painting and the general development of modern art was due
to his portrayal of everyday subject matter; his use of broad, simple color
areas; and a vivid, summary brush technique.
Manet was born in Paris on January 23, 1832, the son of a high government
official. To avoid studying law, as his father wished, he went to sea. He then
studied in Paris under the academic French painter Thomas Couture and visited
Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands to study the paintings of the old masters.
The Dutch painter Frans Hals and the Spanish artists Diego Velázquez, and
Francisco de Goya were the principal influences on his art.
Manet began to paint genre (everyday) subjects, such as old beggars, street
urchins, café characters, and Spanish bullfight scenes. He adopted a direct,
bold brush technique in his treatment of realistic subject matter. In 1863 his
famous Le déjeuner sur l'herbe (Musée d'Orsay,
Paris) was shown at the Salon des Refusés, a new exhibition place opened by
Napoleon III following the protests of artists rejected at the official Salon.
Manet's canvas, portraying a woodland picnic that included a seated female nude
attended by two fully dressed young men, attracted immediate and wide attention,
but was bitterly attacked by the critics. Hailed by young painters as their
leader, Manet became the central figure in the dispute between the academic and
rebellious art factions of his time. In 1864 the official Salon accepted two of
his paintings, and in 1865 he exhibited his Olympia
(1863, Musée d'Orsay), a nude based on a Venus by Titian, which aroused storms
of protest in academic circles because of its unorthodox realism.
In 1866 the French novelist Émile Zola, who championed the art of Manet in the
newspaper Figaro, became a close friend of the painter. He was soon
joined by the young group of French impressionist painters,
Edgar Degas, Claude Monet,
Auguste Renoir, Alfred Sisley,
Camille Pissarro, and
Paul Cézanne, who were influenced by Manet's art and who, in turn,
influenced him, particularly in the use of lighter colors and an emphasis on the
effects of light. Manet served as an officer in the French army from 1870 to
1871, during the Franco-Prussian War. He did not gain recognition until late in
life, when his portraits became much sought after. In 1882 one of his finest
pictures, The Bar at the Folies-Bergère (Courtauld
Institute and Galleries, London), was exhibited at the Salon, and an old friend,
who was then minister of fine arts, obtained the Legion of Honor for the artist.
Manet died in Paris on April 30, 1883. He left, besides many watercolor and
pastels, 420 oil paintings.
"Manet, Édouard," Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2000
http://encarta.msn.com © 1997-2000 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
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Argenteuil
French artist
Édouard Manet often illustrated scenes from contemporary life in his paintings.
With his modern subject matter and spontaneous, brushy technique, he influenced
the development of modern art. Argenteuil, which depicts a couple on a
boating excursion, was painted in 1874. It is in the Musée des Beaux-Arts in
Tournai, Belgium.
Bullfight (1865)
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 Portrait
d'Emile Zola, 1868
Oil on canvas 146 x 114 cm
Musée d'Orsay, Paris |
Still Life with Melon and Peaches, c. 1866
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