Edouard Manet

Born: January 23, 1832
City and Country of Origin: Paris, France
Painting School: Impressionist
Art Training: Studied with the French painter Thomas Couture from 1850-56
Exhibitions: Salon des Refuses, Paris Salon
Awards: Second class medal at the Paris Salon "Portrait of Henri Rocheforte"
Major Works: "Le Dejeuner sur l'herbe," "Bar at the Folies-Bergere," "Olympia," "Boating," "Argenteuil," "The Execution o fthe Emperor Maximilian"
Edouard Manet Biography: He was the son of a high ranking official in the Ministry of Justice. He began his studies at the College Rollin, but was granted permission by his father to enter the Ecole Naval. After twice failing the entrance exam he received his families permission to pursue a career as an artist. In 1857 after completing his art studies he met Fantin Latour at the Louvre. Latour in turn would introduce Manet to Berthe Morisot with whom he would have a long standing mutual relationship she as a subject for his paintings and he as a mentor for her artwork. It is believed that this would have been more than just a business like relationship if Manet had not been a married man with a son, a marriage and birth that was the result of an adolescent indiscretion. Berthe would eventually marry Edouard's brother Eugene in 1874.

Manet is considered the founder of the Impressionist movement even though he himself was not an Impressionist until his later years. He like Degas was primarily not a plein aire painter, but a studio painter and chose much of his subject matter from the activities of the newly established leisure class. However, unlike Degas he was a monumental painter, meaning that he chose to paint large socially meaningful paintings much in the tradition of the classical masters with the full intention of submitting them to the Paris Salon for entry into their annual exhibition. Much like Monet he was not impressed by the traditonal classical style of rendering form by the use of chiarascuro, but unlike Monet his primary influence was not the English watercolorists Constable and Turner, but rather the Spanish painters Velazquez, Goya and the Spanish influenced Frans Hals.

When one views a Manet figurative painting or portrait one is immediately aware of the fresh clean brushwork and soft modeling of form. One would think that this was an artist with a great natural gift as both a draftsman and a renderer. However, nothing could be further from the truth. The spontaneity of his work was accomplished through many arduous hours of meticulously drawing and underpainting the subject, often times cleaning off the canvas with black soap and starting anew. It has been said that he restarted the portrait of Eva Gonzalez some 21 times before he was satisfied. Only when he was satisfied that the drawing and underpainting were exactly as he wanted it would he scrape down the canvas and begin the final rendering process.
Died: April 30, 1883