Manet, Edouard 

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Edouard Manet: a biography.... 

born Paris, January 29th 1832 died Paris - April 30th 1883

In common with many of the major French nineteenth century artists, Manet was a product of the bourgeoisie. His Mother, Eugenie-Desiree Fournier, was the god-daughter of Charles Bernadotte, the Crown Prince of Sweden (Bernadotte was one of Napoleon's marshals, and was put on the throne by Napoleon. His descendants are kings of Sweden to this day - but that's another story). His father, Auguste, was a magistrate and judge who hoped that Edouard would follow in his footsteps.

Although well educated, Manet did not particularly excel within the academic environment but he showed a propensity toward drawing and the arts. His Uncle Charles Fournier encouraged his appreciation for the arts and often took him and his childhood friend, Antonin Proust, on outings to the Louvre. In 1850 after serving in the merchant marines, Manet entered the studio of Thomas Couture where he studied until 1856. He was influenced by the old masters, particulary Velazquez and Goya, but Manet reasoned that one's art should reflect ideas and ideals of the present rather then the past. 

Great changes were taking place in Paris at this time. The medieval centre of the city, a maze and warren of organically-grown streets and alleys, was demolished, under the direction of Baron Haussmann, to be replaced by a planned city of wide boulevards (designed, it is often said, to be wide enough for the use of cannon. Parisians are apt to revolt now and again). Streets were widened and lengthened, store fronts designed, buildings torn down and redeveloped all in an effort to make Paris the most beautiful and culturally progressive city in the world. This modernity infected the cultural life of Paris and was what Manet chose to concern himself. At a time when the accepted subjects for painting were biblical, allegorical, or military, this was a major step.

His use of paint, too, was far removed from the accepted norm. He developed a freer manner, creating form not through a gradual blending of tones but with discrete areas of color side by side. He began his career with The Absinthe Drinker (1858), a painting depicting a debauched and solitary man amongst the shadows of the back streets of Paris. Paintings like the Absinthe Drinker, and the Old Musician (1862), portray a darker aspect of Parisian life which was quite removed from Manet's circle, but nonetheless very real. 

Manet put great emphasis on acceptance by The Salon. It was in 1863 that Dejeuner sur l'herbe (luncheon on the grass) finally earned him that recognition. The Salon jury of 1863 had been exceptionally brutal and thousands of paintings had been refused. To counter these refusals, the Salon des Refuses was established and it was here that Dejeuner sur l'herbe  was exhibited. Although influenced by Raphael and Giorgione, Dejeuner did not bring the artist praise. It brought criticism. Critics found Dejuener to be anti-academic and politically suspect and the ensuing storm surrounding this painting has made it a benchmark in academic discussions of modern art. The nude in Manet's painting was no nymph, or mythological being...she was a modern Parisian women cast into a contemporary setting with two clothed men. Many found this to be shockingly vulgar. It was a painting tailor made for sensation. The critics also had much to say about Manet's technical abilities. His harsh frontal lighting and elimination of mid tones rocked ideas of traditional academic training. And yet, it is also important to understand that not everyone criticized him, for it was also Dejeuner which set the stage for the advent of Impressionism.

Olympia, also painted in 1863, caused a similar uproar and the controversy surrounding these two paintings truly dismayed Manet. It was not at all his intention to create a scandal. He was not a radical artist, such as Courbet; nor was he a bohemian, as the critics had thought. Recently married to the well mannered and well bred Suzanne Leenhoff,  Manet was an immaculately groomed member of high society. As Henri Fantin-Latour's Portrait of him suggests - this man was the quintessential Parisian flaneur. But Manet's unique technical innovations intrigued the likes of Pierre Renoir and Claude Monet and set free the traditional and conservative reigns of academic painting.

The Franco-Prussian war of 1870 saw Paris besieged, the violence of the Paris Commune, occupation and wide scale starvation and blood-letting. Manet sent his family south to protect them from the fighting in Paris and signed on as a gunner in the National Guard. He felt horror and dismay at the events.  

By 1874 Manet's reputation as experimental artist and leader of the Impressionists was firmly established. The Cafe Guerbois, near his studio became the gathering spot for Monet, Renoir, Sisley and Degas and although Manet presided over the regular meeting and debates held at the cafe, he was not enthusiastic about his role as leader of the avant-garde.

In 1874, when the Impressionists held their first exhibition at Nadar's studio, Manet refused to participate. He chose instead to remain focused on the Salon. He never exhibited in any of the eight Impressionist exhibitions and yet by no means did he abandon the Impressionists. He worked closely with Monet in Argenteuil during 1874 and often gave financial support to his friends who needed it. It was during this time that he came closest to painting in the Impressionist style. Painting en plein air, Argenteuil and Monet's Boat studio both approach the notions of reflected light and atmosphere of Impressionism but Manet never becomes assimilated into the true Impressionist style.

In his last great masterpiece,  Bar at the Folies-Bergere (1882), Manet returns again to studio painting, a somber palette and eliminated mid tones. The cafe concert is a theme which he had been treating in the late 70's. In Bar at the Folies-Bergere, we are no longer spectators, but participants in the painting. While the Barmaid occupies the center of the piece, the painting is filled with a menagerie of characters from seated couples to trapeze artists. Glittering chandeliers and electric lights fill the upper portion of the work. Here, as in Dejeuner sur l'herbe, optical contradictions abound.

Modern life was Manet's theme: and he depicts it with stunning techniques. If his work is full of contradictions, and has a lack of perspective from time to time, then this perhaps also reflects the Paris of his time. Always controversial, he sought to record his surroundings using his own unique vision. From beggars, to prostitutes, to the bourgeoisie he sought to be true to himself and to produce "not great art, but sincere art."  In fact, he produced both.

SOME MANET PRINTS

Books about Edouard Manet

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