Édouard Manet - Delphi Complete Works of Édouard Manet (Illustrated)

douard Manet

(1832-1883)

Contents

Delphi Classics 2016

Version 1

Masters of Art Series

douard Manet

By Delphi Classics, 2016

Masters of Art - douard Manet

First published in the United Kingdom in 2016 by Delphi Classics.

Delphi Classics, 2016.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form other than that in which it is published.

ISBN: 978 1 78656 499 3

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Rue Bonaparte is a street in the 6th arrondissement of Paris the site of Manets birthplace. douard Manet was born on 23 January 1832, in the ancestral htel particulier on the rue des Petits Augustins (now rue Bonaparte) to an affluent and well-connected family.

The birthplace

Manets portrait of his parents, 1860. His mother, Eugnie-Desire Fournier, was the daughter of a diplomat and goddaughter of the Swedish crown prince Charles Bernadotte, from whom the Swedish monarchs are descended. His father, Auguste Manet, was a French judge, who expected douard to pursue a career in law.

Manet as a youth, 1846

Manet, 1867

THE HIGHLIGHTS

In this section, a sample of Manets most celebrated works is provided, with concise introductions, special detail reproductions and additional biographical images.

douard Manet was born in Paris on 23 January 1832 to an affluent and well-connected family, who had high hopes he would pursue a career in law. However, his uncle, Edmond Fournier, encouraged him to pursue painting and took him as a boy to the Louvre, where he was delighted by the many works of the Old Masters. By 1845, following the advice of his uncle, Manet enrolled in a special course of drawing, where he met Antonin Proust, future Minister of Fine Arts, who would become an important lifelong friend.

At his fathers suggestion in 1848, Manet sailed on a training vessel to Rio de Janeiro, but he soon returned Europe. After he twice failed the examination to join the Navy, his father finally relented to his sons wishes to pursue an art education. From 1850 to 1856, Manet studied under the academic painter Thomas Couture and in his spare time, he 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 Velzquez and Francisco de Goya. In 1856, he was able to open his own studio having grown to dislike Coutures austere Salon style and from then on he could work as an independent artist in his own right. His style during this period was characterised by loose brush strokes, simplification of details and the suppression of transitional tones. Adopting the current style of realism initiated by Gustave Courbet, he opted to paint contemporary subjects such as beggars, singers, Gypsies, people in cafs and bullfights, rather then the more traditional Biblical and historical subjects preferred by the Salon; he faced a daunting challenge, as an artists success was almost totally dependant on being accepted by the Salons stringent board.

Completed c. 1859, The Absinthe Drinker is generally considered to be Manets first major painting and first original work. The full-length portrait presents the seedy view of an alcoholic rag-picker named Collardet, who frequented the area around the Louvre. Collardet is presented in mostly brown, grey and black tones, adding to the mood of gloom and disgrace. The figure is standing, wearing a black top hat and is wrapped in a brown cloak, aping the pose of an aristocrat, as he leans on a ledge with the empty bottle discarded on the floor by his feet hinting at his inebriated state. Manet later added a half-full glass of absinthe on the ledge as a topical addition to the canvas. Influenced by the gritty realism of Gustave Courbet, the picture reveals a mundane subject on a large scale, measuring 180.5 centimetres high by 105.6 centimetres wide.

It is believed Manet may have taken inspiration from the poem Le Vin de chiffonniers (The rag-pickers wine) from Charles Baudelaires 1857 collection Les Fleurs du mal , as well as from the paintings of ordinary people completed by Diego Velzquez in the seventeenth century. Near the completion of the painting, Manet showed it to his former master. Asked for his opinion, Couture is said to have retorted: An absinthe drinker! And they paint abominations like that! My poor friend, you are the absinthe drinker. It is you who have lost your moral sense.

The Absinthe Drinker was the first work that Manet submitted to the Paris Salon and it was hastily rejected, with only Eugne Delacroix voting in its favour. At that time absinthe was thought to be addictive and considered morally degenerate, and so a depiction of the drink in art was heavily frowned upon. Refusal of other works by young painters like Manet would eventually lead to the creation of the Salon des Refuss in 1863. The painting, however, also has technical faults. The canvas is unevenly finished, with brush strokes visible in places, while Collardets legs awkwardly connect to his body.

Manet continued to revise the painting after 1859 and the same cloaked figure reappears in his 1862 painting The Old Musician . The original full-length portrait was cut down to three-quarter length by 1867 when it was exhibited by Manet with 56 other works in a self-funded retrospective at the Exposition Universelle held in Paris; The Absinthe Drinker was extended again by 1872 when Manet sold it and 23 other works to the art dealer Paul Durand-Ruel. The painting was later sold to opera singer Jean-Baptiste Faure in 1906 and exhibited at the Statens Museum for Kunst in Copenhagen in 1914 when it was acquired for the Ny Carlsberg Foundation. It was one of the first modern works added to the collection at the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, where it is still held today.