Artist Edouard Manet (1832-83) has been well analysed in the last decade. In 2003, Madrid’s Prado focused on the artist's relationship to his art predecessors and in 2011, Paris’ Musee d'Orsay located him among his contemporaries. Now an exhibition called Manet: Portraying Life is focusing on the portraits he painted. This exhibition was organised by the Royal Academy of Arts Burlington House London, in collaboration with the Toledo Museum of Art Ohio. The show wowed them in Toledo!
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Manet, Portrait of Zola, 1868
147 x 114 cm
Although he lived only until 51, the Impressionists' leader in Paris created many paintings in general, and portraits in particular. Manet painted his family, friends and many of the famous personalities in French art and literature. 50+ of these works have been collected from all around the world, so now I have to ask why do we know so much about his images of modern city life but not much about his portraits.
147 x 114 cm
Musee d'Orsay
Two critiques of the exhibition have been useful. Richard Dorment of the Telegraph noted that Manet placed portraits of real people against settings fabricated in his studio. Thus the line between what should have been seen as a true portrait and what was best understood as a genre painting was not always clear. This shifting ground between portraiture and genre went right to the heart of Manet’s modernity. In some pictures Manet used portraits in the way theatre directors used actors. He added all the ingredients of a boulevard farce about money, sex and modern life, seen through the eyes of the quintessential flâneur.
But Richard, even Manet's quest for modernity was ambivalent! On one hand he was a risk-taker in his art and often found himself excluded from the official Salon by art experts in the early years. On the other hand, his very large painting Le Dejeurner sur l'herbe 1863 looked as if it came straight from Renaissance Italy a la The Pastoral Concert c1510 by Giorgione or Titian. Could an artist be backward looking and modernist at the same time?
Adrian Searl of the Guardian believed almost all of Manet’s oeuvre was portraiture, whatever genre he was painting. This was most obvious in Music in the Tuileries Gardens 1862, which is displayed in a room on its own. Visitors can easily see all the tiny portraits embedded in this small outdoor scene, a snap shot of leisure and pleasure in Paris.
The London exhibition opened with a room devoted to the artist and his family. In one, his wife played the piano; in another there was an impressionist portrait of his wife with a cat on her lap. Berthe Morisot, the artist who married Manet’s brother, was painted with a Bouquet of Violets in 1872. Searl’s point was that Manet painted from life, so everyone who appeared was a kind of portrait.
Manet really was the organising father of impressionism! He and his wife welcomed the artistic and literary personalities into their home for a salon every week. And friends often dropped into Manet in his studio or joined him at a table in his favourite cafes. But he was rarely a true impressionist in his art, as Monet and Pissarro were.
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Manet, Portrait of Antonin Proust, 1880
130 x 96 cm
Toledo Museum of Art,
The catalogue is important because many people won’t be able to get to London before the exhibition abruptly closes next week (14th April)!!! As a lasting piece of literature, the catalogue explores Manet's portraiture and reviews his growth over his career.
Two critiques of the exhibition have been useful. Richard Dorment of the Telegraph noted that Manet placed portraits of real people against settings fabricated in his studio. Thus the line between what should have been seen as a true portrait and what was best understood as a genre painting was not always clear. This shifting ground between portraiture and genre went right to the heart of Manet’s modernity. In some pictures Manet used portraits in the way theatre directors used actors. He added all the ingredients of a boulevard farce about money, sex and modern life, seen through the eyes of the quintessential flâneur.
But Richard, even Manet's quest for modernity was ambivalent! On one hand he was a risk-taker in his art and often found himself excluded from the official Salon by art experts in the early years. On the other hand, his very large painting Le Dejeurner sur l'herbe 1863 looked as if it came straight from Renaissance Italy a la The Pastoral Concert c1510 by Giorgione or Titian. Could an artist be backward looking and modernist at the same time?
Adrian Searl of the Guardian believed almost all of Manet’s oeuvre was portraiture, whatever genre he was painting. This was most obvious in Music in the Tuileries Gardens 1862, which is displayed in a room on its own. Visitors can easily see all the tiny portraits embedded in this small outdoor scene, a snap shot of leisure and pleasure in Paris.
The London exhibition opened with a room devoted to the artist and his family. In one, his wife played the piano; in another there was an impressionist portrait of his wife with a cat on her lap. Berthe Morisot, the artist who married Manet’s brother, was painted with a Bouquet of Violets in 1872. Searl’s point was that Manet painted from life, so everyone who appeared was a kind of portrait.
Manet really was the organising father of impressionism! He and his wife welcomed the artistic and literary personalities into their home for a salon every week. And friends often dropped into Manet in his studio or joined him at a table in his favourite cafes. But he was rarely a true impressionist in his art, as Monet and Pissarro were.
130 x 96 cm
Toledo Museum of Art,
The catalogue is important because many people won’t be able to get to London before the exhibition abruptly closes next week (14th April)!!! As a lasting piece of literature, the catalogue explores Manet's portraiture and reviews his growth over his career.
Of all the works described and explained in the catalogue, I particularly loved two. Firstly the portrait of Émile Zola - partially because Manet developed a modern approach to this genre, but also because Zola was a very fine thinker and writer. Secondly the portrait of Antonin Proust, a childhood friend of Manet who went on to become a journalist, politician and, importantly, the Minister for Culture. This gorgeous portrait reminds me of the 1867 portrait painted by Henri Fantin-Latour of Manet himself. The top hat, gloves and cane represented a debonair man about town.
The first in a new series of cinematic art exhibitions from museums around the world, called Exhibition Screen, is about to start. The Royal Academy’s exhibition, Manet: Portraying Life, will be captured for cinema screens worldwide and shown in Palace Cinemas in Australia on the 27th and 28th April 2013. Manet lovers in other countries should check Exhibition Screen for their own dates.
The first in a new series of cinematic art exhibitions from museums around the world, called Exhibition Screen, is about to start. The Royal Academy’s exhibition, Manet: Portraying Life, will be captured for cinema screens worldwide and shown in Palace Cinemas in Australia on the 27th and 28th April 2013. Manet lovers in other countries should check Exhibition Screen for their own dates.