French painter. He came from an upper middle-class family, his father being chief
of personnel in the Ministry of Justice and his mother a diplomat's daughter.
Manet decided to become a painter at the age of sixteen, when he was a student
at a boarding school, the College Rollin, but his parents' opposition forced him to
choose a naval career. After failing the entrance competition for the Naval
Academy, he set out for Brazil on a training ship (December r848-June r849). On
his return to France, he failed the examination a second time and finally obtained
his father's permission to enroll in the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, where he studied
under Thomas Couture.
His independent spirit soon led to friction with his master and, in 1856, he left
Couture's studio, having in the meanwhile (between 1853 and 1856)
supplemented his academic training with trips to the Low Countries, Austria,
Germany, and Italy. In the course of these journeys Manet copied masterworks in
the museums, just as he had done in the Louvre. In 1856 he settled in Paris,
where he painted his Baudelairian Absinthe Drinker , which was refused by the
official salon despite the support of Eugene Delacroix. In the Salon of 1861 Manet
was more fortunate, being awarded an honorable mention for his Portrait of
Monsieur and Madame Auguste Manet and for his Spanish Singer (also known as
Le Guitarrero, . In 1862 a troupe of Spanish dancers p'erforming in Paris inspired
a series of paintings, notably his famous Lola de Valence .
By 1862 Manet had gained a reputation as an innovator. In 1863 he exhibited at
the Salon des Refuses along with Paul Cezanne, Johan Barthold ongkind,
Camille Pissarro, and J. A. M. Whistler. He submitted three pictures rejected at
the 1863 Salon, including Le Dejeuner sur I'Herbe, or Luncheon on the Grass ,
which caused a scandal. In this memorable painting he had merely revived a
Classical theme, interpreting it in a fresh and lively manner, and eliminating the
trappings of mythology. Manet immediately became the standard bearer of a new
manner of painting and a hero to the younger generation of artists, the future
Impressionists. In 1863 he painted the controversial Olympia under the direct
influence of Titian, but when he exhibited this realistically rendered nude at the
Salon of 1865 it drew jeers from the public and sarcasm from. the critics. In
disgust, Manet made a brief trip to Spain, where he discovered the painting of
Velazquez and Goya. After his return to Paris, however, he concentrated on
French subjects, while Spanish influences generally became confined to
technique and composition.
Quite paradoxically, Manet was a member of the bourgeoisie who shocked his
own class, a painter steeped in classicism who was anathema to academic
painters. In paint¬ing, he was the first to complete the break with the sacrosanct
traditions observed to the letter in official circles. This was unpardonable, and he
consoled himself by presiding over the gatherings at the Parisian Cafe Guerbois,
the meeting place of the avant-garde and Impressionists. Regular participants
included Degas, Monet, Cezanne, Renoir, Pissarro, the novelist Emile Zola, and
the statesman Georges Clemenceau.
In 1866 Manet's Salon entryThe Fifer was rejected. The following year his
paintings were refused by the Paris Exposition Universelle; in protest, he exhibited
about 50 canvases in a pavilion which he had built at his own expense on the
Place de l'Alma beside that of Gustave Courbet.In 1868 his Portrait of Emile Zola
was accepted by the official Salon and, soon after this, he made the
acquaintance of Berthe Morisot. Impressed by her charm, he asked her to pose
for The Balcony
During the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71) Manet served as lieutenant in the
artillery, but retired to the country during the period of the Commune, returning to
Paris only at the end of the insurrection. After the war he found greater
acceptance for his work on the part of the public and the critics and sold several
paintings to the art dealer Paul Durand-Ruel. His portrait of the engraver and
lithographer Emile Bellot, called Le Bon Bock met with great success ill at the
1873 Salon. At this time Manet also began to paint masked balls tr at the Opera,
seascapes, and beach scenes. He also executed his first JE pastel, a profile of
Madame Manet .
In 1879 Manet began to suffer the first attacks of the illness~probably locomotor
atax -that was to prove fatal. he was paralyzed and confined.
in-arts.net
Manet
Édouard Manet
1832-1883
Medival
Rannaissnce
13-14th century
14-15th cenury
15-16th century
16-17th century
17-18th century
18-19th century
Impressionism
Post Impressionism
Early 20th century