ART & ARTISTS: 2015-04-19

Friday, 24 April 2015

Édouard Manet - part 2

Edgar Degas 1864-65 Edouard Manet, Bust-Length Portrait
etching, drypoint, and aquatint on laid paper 13 x 10.5 cm ( plate )
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Édouard Manet (1832 – 1883) was a French painter. He was one of the first 19^th 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.

1862 The Balloon
lithograph in black on laid paper 40.3 x 50.8 cm ( image )
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

1862 The Gypsies
etching on blue laid paper 30.5 x 23.8 cm
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

1862 The Old Musician
oil on canvas 187.4 x 248.2 cm
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

1862 The Toilette
etching in black on ivory laid China paper 28.5 x 22.2 cm
Art Institute of Chicago, IL

1862 Young Woman Reclining
oil on canvas 93.98 x 113 cm
Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT

1862-63 Don Mariano Camprubi
etching on blue laid paper from 1905 Strölin edition 29.8 x 19.7 cm ( plate )
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

1862-63c Fishing
oil on canvas 76.8 x 123.2 cm
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

1862-64 Silentium
etching on blue laid paper from 1905 Strölin edition 20.3 x 15.1 cm ( plate )
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

1862-64 The Infanta Marguerita after Velázquez ( see below )
etching on blue laid paper from 1905 Strölin edition 23.2 x 20.2 cm ( plate )
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Velazquez 1654-55 Infanta Margarita
oil on canvas 70 x 59 cm
Musée du Louvre, Paris

1862-72c Boy with Pitcher
oil on canvas 61.8 x 54.3 cm
Art Institute of Chicago, IL

1862c Gypsy with a Cigarette
oil on canvas 92 x 73 cm
The Art Museum, Princeton University, New Jersey

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.

1862c Street Singer
oil on canvas 171.1 x 105.8 cm
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA

1862c Victorine Meurent
oil on canvas 43 x 44 cm
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA

Victorine Meurent, c. 1865 from an album of portraits belonging to Édouard Manet

1862c Study of a Seated Nude ( La Toilette )
red chalk on buff laid paper 28 x 20 cm
Art Institute of Chicago, IL

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

1863 Lola de Valence
etching and aquatint on laid paper 26.4 x 18.1 cm ( plate )
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

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:

1863 Olympia
oil on canvas 130 x 190 cm
Musée d'Orsay, Paris
© RMN-Grand Palais (Musée d'Orsay )

Titian 1538 Venus of Urbino
oil on canvas 119.2 x 165.5 cm
Uffizi Gallery, Florence

Francisco de Goya 1797-1800 Maja desnuda
oil on canvas 97 x 190 cm
Museo del Prado, Madrid

1867 Olympia ( large plate )
etching on blue laid paper from the 1905 Strölin edition 16.8 x 24 cm ( plate )
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

1867 Olympia ( small plate )
etching in brown ink on laid paper 8.8 x 17.9 cm
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

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

1864 The "Kearsarge" at Boulogne
oil on canvas 81.6 x 100 cm
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

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

1864 Steamboat Leaving Boulogne
oil on canvas 73.6 x 92.6 cm
Art Institute of Chicago, IL

1864-68c Sailing Ships and Seagulls
oil on canvas 21 x 26 cm
Private Collection

1864 Eel and Red Mullet
oil on canvas
Musée d'Orsay, Paris

1864 Fish ( Still Life )
oil on canvas 73.4 x 92.1 cm
Art Institute of Chicago, IL

1864 Fruit on a Table
oil on canvas 45.1 x 73.3 cm
Musée d'Orsay, Paris

1864 Peony Stems and Pruning Shears
oil on canvas 56.8 x 46.4 cm
Musée d'Orsay, Paris

1864 Still Life: Fruits on a Table
oil on canvas 45 x 73.5 cm
Musée d'Orsay, Paris

1864 The Dead Christ with Angels
oil on canvas 179.4 x 149.9 cm
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

1866-67 Dead Christ with Angels
etching and aquatint in brown-black ink on wove paper 39.4 x 32.7 cm ( plate )
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

1864 The Races at Longchamp
oil on canvas
Art Institute of Chicago, IL

1865-72 published 1884 The Races
lithograph on chine collé 38.7 x 51.1 cm
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

1864 Vase of Peonies on a Small Pedestal
oil on canvas 93 x 70 cm
Musée d'Orsay, Paris

1864-65 Peonies
oil on canvas 59.4 x 35.2
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

1864-65 La Corrida
48 x 108 cm
The Frick Collection, New York

1864-65c The Head of Christ
oil on canvas
California Palace of the Legion of Honour, San Francisco

Wednesday, 22 April 2015

Édouard Manet - part 1

Édouard Manet c1846

Born in Paris in 1832, he was the son of Auguste Manet, a high-ranking judge, and Eugénie-Desirée Fournier, the daughter of a diplomat and the goddaughter of the Swedish crown prince. Affluent and well connected, the couple hoped their son would choose a respectable career, preferably law. Édouard refused, and wanted to create art.

Manet’s uncle, Edmond Fournier, supported his early interests and arranged frequent trios for him to the Louvre. His father, ever fearful that his family’s prestige would be tarnished, continued to present Manet with more “appropriate” options. In 1848 Manet boarded a Navy vessel headed for Brazil; his father hoped he might take to a seafaring life. Manet returned in 1849 and promptly failed his naval examinations. He repeatedly failed over the course of a decade, so his parents finally gave in and supported his dream of attending art school.

At age 18 Manet began studying under Thomas Couture, learning the basics of drawing and painting. For several years Manet would steal away to the Louvre and sit for hours copying the works of the old masters. Between 1853 and 1856 he travelled through Italy, Germany and Holland to take in the brilliance of several admired painters; notably Frans Hals, Diego Velázquez and Francisco Goya.

After six years as a student Manet finally opened his own studio. His painting “The Absinthe Drinker” is a fine example of his early attempts at realism, the most popular style of the day. Despite his success with realism, Manet began to entertain a looser, more impressionistic style. Using broad brushstrokes, he chose as his subjects everyday people engaged in everyday tasks. His canvases were populated with singers, street people, gypsies and beggars. This unconventional focus combined with a mature knowledge of the old masters startled some and impressed others.

For his painting “Concert in the Tuileries Gardens,” Manet set up his easel in the open air and stood for hours while he composed a fashionable crowd of city dwellers. When he showed the painting, some thought it unfinished, while others understood what he was trying to convey. (See below in this post)

Perhaps his most famous painting “Le déjeuner sur l’herbe,” which he completed and exhibited in 1863. The scene of two young men dressed and sitting beside a female nude alarmed several of the jury members making selections for the annual Paris Salon, the official exhibition hosted by the Académie des beaux-Arts in Paris. Due to its perceived indecency, they refused to show it. Manet was not alone, as more than 4000 works were denied entry that year. In response Napoleon III established the Salon des Refusés to exhibit some of those rejected works, including Manet’s submission.

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 )

During this time he married Suzanne Leenhoff, a Dutch woman. She had been Manet’s piano tutor when he was a child. By the time they officially married, they had been involved for nearly ten years and had an infant (step)son named Leon Keoella Leenhoff. The boy posed for his father for the 1861 painting “Boy Carrying a Sword” (see in this post below). Suzanne was the model for several paintings, including “The Reading” (1865–73).

1865-73c The Reading
61 x 74.3 cm
Musée d'Orsay, Paris

Trying once again to gain acceptance into the Salon, Manet submitted “Olympia” in 1865. This striking portrait, inspired by Titian’s “Venus of Urbino,” shows a lounging nude beauty unabashedly staring at her viewers. The Salon jury members were not impressed – they deemed it scandalous, as did the general public. Manet’s contemporaries on the other hand began to think of him as a hero, willing to break the mould. In hindsight, he was ringing in a new style and leading the transition to Impressionism. Within 42 years “Olympia” would be installed in the Louvre museum.

1863 Olympia
oil on canvas 130 x 190 cm
Musée d'Orsay, Paris
© RMN-Grand Palais ( Musée d'Orsay )

After this unsuccessful attempt with the Salon, Manet travelled to Spain, during which time he painted a number of Spanish subjects. In 1866 he met and befriended the novelist Emile Zola, who in 1867 wrote a glowing article about Manet in the French newspaper Le Figaro. He pointed out that almost all significant artists start by offending the current public sensibilities. This review impressed the art critic Louis-Edmond Duranty, who began to support Manet as well. Painters like Cezanne, Gauguin, Degas and Monet became his friends.

Some of Manet’s best-loved works are his café scenes. His completed paintings were often based on small sketches he made whilst out socialising. These works, such as “At the Café” and “The Café Concert” (both 1878) typically depict 19^th century Parisian culture. Unlike conventional painters of his time, he strove to illuminate the rituals of both common and bourgeoisie French people.

1878 The Cafe-Concert
oil on canvas 47.3 x 39 cm
Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, Maryland

In stark contrast to his café scenes, Manet also painted the tradegies and triumphs of war. In 1870 he served as a soldier during the Franco-German War and observed the destruction of Paris. His studio was partially destroyed during the siege of Paris, but to his delight, the art dealer Paul Durand-Ruel bought everything he could salvage from the wreckage for 50,000 francs.

In 1874 Manet was invited to show at the very first exhibition put on by Impressionist artists. However supportive he was of the general movement, he turned them down, as well as seven other invitations. He felt it was necessary to remain devoted to the Salon and its place in the art world. In 1875, a year after the first Impressionist exhibition he was offered the opportunity to illustrate Edgar Allen Poe’s book-length French edition of “The Raven.”

1875 Portfolio cover and text for The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

In 1881 the French government awarded him the Legion d’honneur. He died two years later in April 1883.

Biography adapted from: Edouard Manet. (2015). The Biography.com

This is part 1 of a 9 – part post on the works of Édouard Manet:

1849 Pierrot Dancing
ink on paper 26.7 x 20.4 cm
Private Collection

1852-58 Man Wearing a Cloak ( recto )
charcoal on wove paper 40.6 x 22.5 cm
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

1852-58 Man Wearing a Cloak ( verso )
charcoal on wove paper 40.6 x 22.5 cm
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

1855-59c The Barque of Dante

There are two versions by Manet of Delacroix’s painting of 1822 (Musée du Louvre, Paris). The more literal copy dates from around 1855, when the original was on view at the Exposition Universelle. The other freely executed study is thought to date from around 1859, the year of Manet’s first Salon submission.

Eugène Delacroix 1822 The Barque of Dante
oil on canvas 189 x 246 cm
Louvre, Paris

1855c The Barque of Dante ( after Delacroix )
oil on canvas 38.1 x 45.7 cm

1859c The Barque of Dante
oil on canvas 33 x 41 cm
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

1856c Portrait of a Young Man
pastel on paper 35.6 x 28.6 cm
Detroit Institute of Arts, Michigan
Photo ©2015 Detroit Institute of Arts

1856c The Anatomy Lesson ( after Rembrandt )
24.9 x 39.2 cm
Private Collection

Rembrandt: The Anatomy Lesson 1632
oil on canvas 216.5 x 169.5 cm
Mauritshuis, The Hague

1858 A Woman Pouring Water ( Study of Suzanne Leenhoff )
oil on canvas 56 x 47 cm
Ordrupgaard Collection, Copenhagen

1859 Study of Trees
oil on canvas
Private Collection

1859 The Absinthe Drinker
oil on canvas 180.5 x 105.6 cm
Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen, Denmark

1862 The Absinthe Drinker
etching and plate tone on ivory laid paper 24.8 x 14.5 cm ( image )
Art Institute of Chicago, IL

1859 The Boy with Cherries
oil on canvas
Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon

1859-60c The Little Cavaliers ( after an attributed Velazquez watercolour )
oil on canvas 47 x 78 cm
Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA

1861-62 The Little Cavaliers
etching and drypoint on blue laid paper from the Strölin edition of 1905
25.1 x 38.9 cm

1859-61 The Surprised Nymph
oil on canvas 146 x 114.3 cm
Museu Nacional de Bellas Artes, Buenos Aires

1860 Portrait of a Man
oil on canvas 62 x 50 cm
Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, Netherlands

1860 Portrait of Monsieur and Madame Auguste Manet
oil on canvas 110 x 90 cm
Musée d'Orsay, Paris

1860 The Spanish Singer
oil on canvas 147.3 x 114.3 cm
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

1861-62 The Spanish Singer
etching on blue laid paper 29.5 x 24.3 cm
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

1860-61 Boy Carrying a Tray
watercolour and gouache over graphite on paper 8.4 x 4.5 cm
The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC

1862 Child Carrying a Tray
etching and aquatint
Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio

1860c Scene in a Spanish Studio
oil on canvas 45.7 x 38.1 cm
Private Collection

1861 A Boy with a Dog
oil on canvas 92.1 x 71.8 cm
Private Collection

1862 Boy and Dog
etching and aquatint on blue laid paper from the Strölin edition of 1905
20.3 x 14.1 cm ( plate )
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

1861 A Cat Curled Up, Sleeping
graphite on ivory-coloured paper 11.7 x 10.8 cm
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

1861 A Cat Resting on All Fours, Seen from Behind
graphite on ivory-coloured paper 9.5 x 12.2 cm
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

1861 Boy with a Sword

This is a portrait of Manet’s stepson Leon, dressed in a 17^th Century costume and carrying a sword as a prop. It is a tribute to the great Spanish painters of that century and notably, Velazquez, whom Manet admired so much.

1861 Boy with a Sword
oil on canvas 131.1 x 93.4 cm
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

1862 Boy with a Sword, Turned Left
etching and aquatint on laid paper 32 x 23.8 cm ( plate )
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

1861-62 The Reader
oil on canvas 99.7 x 81.3 cm
Saint Louis Art Museum, Missouri

1861-62 The Reader
etching

1861-62 The Little Girl
etching and drypoint on blue laid paper from the Strölin edition of 1905
20.6 x 11.6 cm
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

1861-62 The Toilette
etching with roulette and bitten tone on blue laid paper from the Strölin edition of 1905
28.4 x 22.2 cm ( plate )
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

1861-63 reworked by 1867 Portrait of Madame Brunet
oil on canvas 132.4 x 100 cm
J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA

1862 Boy and Dog
etching and aquatint on blue laid paper from the Strölin edition of 1905
20.3 x 14.1 cm ( plate )
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

1862 Concert in the Tuileries Gardens ( aka Music in the Tuileries Gardens )

oil on canvas 76.2 x 118.1 cm

The National Gallery, London

1862 Concert in the Tuileries Gardens
detail

1862 Don Mariano Camprubi ( Le Bailarin )
etching 30.2 x 19.6 cm ( plate )
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

1862 Hat and Guitar. Cover design for "Eaux-fortes par Edouard Manet," an album of fourteen etchings
etching, drypoint, and aquatint; final state on blue laid paper 22.9 x 21.6 cm
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

1862 Lola de Valence
oil on canvas 123 x 92 cm
Musée d'Orsay, Paris

1862 Mademoiselle Victorine in the Costume of an Espada
oil on canvas 165.1 x 127.6 cm
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

1862 Mademoiselle Victorine in the Costume of an "Espada"
etching, aquatint, and bitten tone on laid paper 33.7 x 27.9 cm ( plate )
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

1862 Oysters
oil on canvas 39.2 x 46.8 cm
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

1862 Phillip IV King of Spain ( after Velazquez )
etching, drypoint and retroussage inking in bistre on China paper 31.9 x 20.2 cm
( image )
Art Institute of Chicago, IL

Velazquez 1632-33c Phillip IV King of Spain
oil on canvas 126 x 191 cm
Museo del Prado, Madrid, Spain

1862 Portrait of Charles Baudelaire, in Profile
etching on laid paper 13.3 x 7.6 cm
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

1862 Spanish Ballet
oil on canvas 24 x 35.6 cm
The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC