Manet Edouard(Manet, Edouard) (1832-1883), a French painter and graphic artist, with his art anticipated the emergence of impressionism and became one of its founders.
Almost all his life, Manet's work faces opposition and difficulties. His father was the head of a department in the Ministry of Justice and prepared his son for a career in law. He was an ardent opponent of art education for his son. And the young artist has to constantly struggle with the demands of an influential father, which forces him to leave the house.
The study of painting in the academic style and the manner of romanticism (fashionable at that time) did not attract Edward. He constantly studies the works and works of artists of the past, visits many museums and travels a lot (Italy, Venice, Florence, Holland, Dresden, Prague, Vienna). One of the artists who had the greatest influence on Manet is Velázquez.
He embodies the accumulated knowledge and vision in his works. Edouard persistently strives for recognition in Paris, but his early work is rejected by critics. The rejection of the works, applicants for participation in the Paris Salon, forced Manet to hold an exhibition called the Salon of the Rejected. The artist had high hopes for recognition of his painting "Breakfast on the Grass", but it was criticized and caused laughter from the visitors of the salon. But the picture aroused the greatest attention and became a symbol of the Salon of the Rejected in 1863. Manet achieves fame, albeit scandalous.
Manet's innovative painting was fiercely attacked by critics, who considered the artist a rebel in art. Using and rethinking the plots and motifs of the paintings of the old masters, Manet sought to fill them with a sharp modern sound, polemically introducing modern man into the well-known classical compositions ("Breakfast on the Grass", 1863).
At the end of the 1860s. Manet became close to E. Degas, C. Monet, O. Renoir and switched to plein air painting; deaf and dense tones with a predominance of dark colors were replaced by lighter and freer painting ("In the boat", 1874). The main theme of Manet's works is the scenes of Parisian life ("Nana", 1877; "In Papa Latuille's Tavern", 1879). In his most significant and profound work, Bar "Folies-Bergere" (1881-1882) shows the illusiveness and illusory nature of happiness amid sparkling, festive fun. Manet turned to a wide variety of topics, painted portraits, still lifes and landscapes, acted as a draftsman, master of lithography and etching. The work of Manet breathed new life into the French art of the 19th century and largely determined the main paths for further artistic searches in painting.
From 1881 he was ill with ataxia - a violation of the coordination of movements. The further life of the artist is connected with the constant development of the disease. On April 19, 1883, his left leg was amputated, and 11 days later he died in terrible agony.
| Breakfast on the grass 1863 |
Music in the Tuileries Garden 1862 |
This artist was one of the founding fathers of Impressionism. That is why the two artists Monet and Manet are often confused. They both worked in this direction and their work is almost similar, but still there is a difference. Claude Monet lived longer and the longer he lived, the more his style changed, or rather the paint on canvas. But Edouard Manet was less fortunate, in terms of life years. After Renoir, this is perhaps the most long-suffering artist. And the point here is not at all in creativity, but in a completely different one - in the state of health. And again associations - both Manet and Renoir had rheumatism, the attacks of which led both to death.
But still, let's return from comparisons to the life path of Edouard Manet. As an artist, he was great. His work pleased, and still delights many admirers of impressionism and ordinary amateurs. So, first of all, Edouard Manet was a representative of a rather wealthy family and therefore could live in peace. Moreover, his father predicted for him the position of a lawyer, but ... the boy only wanted to draw. The father was not categorically against it, but still he was not happy about it. But Uncle Manet was not at all against his nephew's hobby and often took him to the Louvre. It was there that the young Manet realized that his destiny was to be an artist. It was the uncle who paid for attending a course of lectures on painting, but the future brilliant artist found it boring there. And it's true: constantly drawing plaster figures is boring and not interesting, but portraying your classmates is much more interesting. This he did, and soon all his comrades "in misfortune" began to do the same. But Edward did not quarrel with his father, and therefore he took it and tried to enter the Maritime Academy, but failed the exam. True, he was allowed to retake the exam, but for this he went on a sailboat to Brazil. But he didn’t just sit there either, when he returned from the trip, then in his luggage there were a lot of sketches and sketches, portraits of sailors and Brazilian women. And he also wrote a lot of letters to his relatives, where he shared his impressions of what he saw. Of course, upon arrival, Manet once again tried to enter the Naval Academy, but his father saw the drawings and ... gave up. He advised his son to enter the School of Fine Arts in Paris. But Manet did not do this, thinking that he would succeed in the same way as with the naval academy. But he went to the workshop of Couture. But even there he did not stay - everything was too academic.
Then in his life there was a long journey through Central Europe. There he often visited famous museums in Vienna, Dresden, Prague. And even later there was a struggle for their recognition. For example, at that time it was necessary to establish yourself in some kind of Salon. He tried it and at first it worked very well. But one day he exhibited his canvas called "Olympia" and as a result, he was no longer taken seriously. He was insulted, he was called a pervert, and the canvas was generally considered overly vulgar.
And further on, darkness began. He became seriously ill, and it just drove him crazy. It was difficult to move around, rheumatism did not recede and made me feel disgusting. He worked through pain, suffered, but worked. And it was precisely during this period that public recognition returned to him. And this is exactly when he received the Legion of Honor, and this happened just when he was deprived of one leg. Eleven days later he was gone.
His paintings are his life. He created for people and tried to affirm the greatness of beauty with his work. And it seems that he succeeded, because we remember his canvases, study his biography and highly, in the true sense of the word, appreciate his works. Alas, during their lifetime they paid very little for the Impressionist canvases, but after ... Now these canvases are among the ten most expensive paintings.
Alexey Vasin
“You have to be contemporary and write what you see,” Edouard Manet said in his youth and never backed down from this. Creating his images, he used motifs drawn from the old masters: this was the artist's method of asserting modern man in art. Creative biography and interesting facts about Edouard Man.
photo: fragment of the portrait of Edouard Manet, artist Henri Fantin-Latour
Edouard Manet Born January 23, 1832 in Paris, in the family of Auguste Manet, an official of the Ministry of Justice, and Eugenie-Desire Fournier, the daughter of a diplomat. His parents hoped that their son would receive a prestigious legal education and make a brilliant career as a government official. In 1839 Edouard Manet In 1844-1848 he studied at the Rollin College. With the consent of the father Manet even intends to become a sailor. And, despite the fact that he fails twice at the competition in Borda, he nevertheless managed to make a cruise to Rio de Janeiro as a cabin boy. But, in the end, the craving for creativity won.
For six years (1850-1856) Edouard Manet studied painting in the workshop of the then-famous historical artist Thomas Couture. However, a strong antagonism immediately manifested itself in these activities: it was difficult to find something more incommensurable than the desire Manet to living art and the academic “historicism” of Couture. But, as they say, there is no evil without good. It was in the workshop of Couture, who demanded from his students to study the old masters, Manet discovered the classical heritage.
Leaving the routine of the school of Couture, 24-year-old Manet actively engaged in self-education, regularly visited the Louvre. Later he traveled to the museums of Italy, Germany, Austria, Holland, Spain, where, like any novice artist, he copied the works of the great masters - Titian, Velazquez and Rembrandt.
| Edouard Manet, “Still life” |
In 1859 Edouard Manet Together with friends, he tried to exhibit his work at the Salon, which was then held every two years. But his painting The Absinthe Drinker (1859) was rejected. By the way, this work was created not without the influence of friendship with the poet Charles Baudelaire and, probably, was an illustration for his collection “Flowers of Evil”.
First successful painting Edouard Manet became Luncheon on the Grass (1862). Here's what he said about her Manet to his friend, journalist A. Proust:
“When I was in the studio, I copied Giorgione, a naked woman with musicians. But everything will be different for me - I will transfer the scene to the air, surround it with a transparent atmosphere, and the people will be the way we see them today.
This is very important, because it was the artist’s open appeal to old painting that emphasized the novelty of his style.
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| Edouard Manet, “Breakfast on the Grass”, 1862 |
The painting "Breakfast on the Grass" depicts Parisians of the 60s of the XIX century, at ease located in the place of classical heroes. The daring and direct look of a naked woman (the artist painted her from his favorite model, Quiz Meran) is directed directly at the viewer. The work shows characteristic Manet tendencies: the desire for instant fixation of what he saw and, at the same time, for a static manner of writing. If the landscape is painted with light, swift strokes, then the figures and still life are presented in more condensed and contrasting colors. But this work Manet was rejected by the Salon and exhibited in the so-called "Salon of the Rejected". This started an unresolvable conflict. Edouard Manet with official art.
The conflict escalated with the advent of the following work Manet- the famous "Olympia", which also became a kind of slap in the face of public taste. In it, the artist also modernized classical motifs (Titian's "Venus of Urbino" served as a prototype). Instead of Venus Manet depicted "a naked woman on an unmade bed and next to her a black woman with a bouquet of flowers and a black cat with an arched back." There is no obvious connection between the characters, but ambiguous associations are born from their combination. The Olympia was also modeled by Quiz Meran.
The painting was accepted into the Salon and shocked the public. Crowds of people gathered near it, some strove to pierce it with umbrellas, and the guards were forced to call everyone to order. The novelty of these two canvases caused criticism from all sides. But Emile Zola, Victor Hugo and Charles Baudelaire turned out to be more insightful - they took the side Edouard Manet. Zola actively defended Manet in press:
"Since no one talks about it, I will speak. And I will shout about it from the rooftops. I am so convinced that Mr. Manet- the artist of tomorrow, that if I were rich, I would buy all his paintings today, and this would be a profitable investment. Master's place Manet- in the Louvre, like Courbet, like any artist endowed with a strong, uncompromising talent.
Edouard Manet, "Dog head"
Curiously wrote about Edward Manet A. Proust:
"Eye Manet was endowed with amazing vigilance, Paris did not know a flaneur who would draw so many observations from his walks around the city.
Manet painted Parisian streets and cafes, races, sea scenes, naked women at the toilet, portraits and still lifes. It was this desire to ennoble the surrounding reality itself that attracted Manet young innovators, who soon established the name "Impressionists". The place where the artists of the new direction gathered was the cafe "Gerbois" in the Batignolles quarter, from where the first name of the group - "batignolles" - came from. But although Edouard Manet in many ways contributed to the emergence of impressionism, he himself did not merge with this movement. A peculiar result of impressionistic searches and all creativity Manet becomes his work “Bar at the Folies Bergère” (1882).
In the 1860s Manet created mostly portraits of his contemporaries. These figures are amazing in the simplicity of movements and poses, captured with quick and decisive strokes. The subtlest psychologism, penetration and observation of the artist, the ability to convey the character of the hero in a few strokes are read in them.
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| Edouard Manet, “Nana”, 1877 |
If an interesting event happened somewhere, Manet went there and fixed it like a photojournalist. He was the only impressionist who painted battle scenes. An example is the work “The Battle of the Kearsaj” and the “Alabama” (1864), written on the high seas, depicting the North American corvette “Kirsaj” and the privateer “Alabama” helping the southerners.
In 1874, when his Impressionist friends decided to exhibit together, Manet moved away from them, leaving the place of the head of the movement for Claude Monet.
In the late period of his work Edouard Manet finally moved away from impressionism and returned to his former style. In the mid-1870s, he enthusiastically worked with pastel (“Woman tying a stocking”, 1880).
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| Édouard Manet, Woman tying a stocking, 1880 |
official recognition Edouard Manet received in 1882, when he was awarded the Order of the Legion of Honor - the main award of France. A large exhibition of his work was held in 1983 in Paris (Grand Palais) and New York (Metropolitan Museum).
April 30, 1883, after undergoing surgery Edouard Manet died at the age of 52.
Although Manet regularly cheated on his wife, he was an excellent husband for Susanna, his first love, and had the most tender feelings for her. A gentlemen's agreement was concluded between the spouses: she did not keep him in check, and he returned home every evening in good faith, to his role as a big bourgeois, father of a family, where he received friends of a completely different kind than in the workshop: respectable music lovers with an impeccable reputation.
“You have to be contemporary and write what you see”, - said Edouard Manet in his youth and never backed down from it. Creating his images, the artist used motifs drawn from the old masters: such was the artist's method of asserting modern man in art.
Everyone who begins to get acquainted with the world of art, sooner or later, experiences cognitive dissonance about the phonetic incident of two French artists. To say that these masters are often confused is to say nothing, they simply cannot be distinguished, and many people think that this is generally one person. These people can be understood, because Monet and Manet lived at the same time, were born in the same city and were even friends.
Who to talk about first? The history of their fame is so saturated with phonetics, so you have to go alphabetically. The difference in their surnames is only one letter, the second in a row, the letter "A" is the first, so it's fair to start with Manet. As you get to know these artists, you will realize that they are very different and completely individual personalities. It is difficult to say whose contribution to painting was more significant, but now Claude Monet is a more popular and recognizable artist than his friend. It is worth noting that as soon as Monet arrived in Paris from Le Havre, he was looking for meetings and acquaintances with Manet, Renoir, Basil and other already eminent impressionists at that time.
1832 - 1883 (aged 51)
Edouard Manet, self-portrait.
Born into a decent family, his father held a high rank in the Ministry of Justice, and his mother was the daughter of a French diplomat and consul. After school, he wanted to become a sailor, but the exams were too difficult for him. Having failed the tests, he did not despair, and went on training voyages at the naval school. But even then he strongly doubted that he needed the sea, he was increasingly drawn to paints and canvas. Naturally, his parents were against it, but his father gave him a chance for Manet to practice drawing during his study trip. Upon arrival in Paris, Edward showed his father his work and, surprisingly, their relatives received them very warmly. Thus, he entered the school of fine arts, then there were workshops of various artists, in a word, he completed his studies exactly a decade later, at the age of twenty-seven.
Edouard Manet, "In the Boat"
Due to the fact that this material is not biographical, it is necessary to move on to his style of drawing. Edward is distinguished by the fact that he painted more realistic paintings, with correct contours and colors. He loved to portray people, and he was good at it, unlike his counterpart. Manet was a member of the Batignolles group, it included many artists of that time, mostly impressionist artists. Degas, Renoir, Monet, Pissarro - all of them were in this group, they respected and reckoned with the opinion of Edward. But real recognition came many years later, when the artist was already terminally ill. Being practically chained to a chair, he painted a picture "Bar at the Folies Bergère", after which his skill was officially recognized at the Salon of 1882. A year later, his leg was amputated, and a few days later he died in agony from pain.
"Bar at the Folies Bergère"
1840 - 1926 (aged 86)
Claude Monet, self-portrait.
Born into a family of a grocer, his father dreamed that Claude would continue his business and wanted to transfer his grocery store to him. A penny for the life of his family was not easy, and Monet notes his youth almost vagrant and very difficult. He was a very freedom-loving boy, loved nature and often ran away to the sea. If he appeared at school in the classroom, then he painted notebooks more, instead of taking notes. By the age of 15, he was already known throughout the district, everyone knew him as a young cartoonist and a witty guy. He received many orders, he had to make a strong-willed decision, he put up a very impressive price tag for his work, this gave him some scandalousness. But it is expected that he quickly got tired of the cartoons, and he began to draw what he really loves - nature in all its glory. Soon all of France recognized his work, he differed from artists in that his poor eyesight allowed him to paint pictures with completely unimaginable colors of paints. Very little time passed before the whole cultural Europe became interested in him. Monet took place as an artist in full measure precisely as a landscape painter, who, thanks to his defect and illness (cataract), opened a new genre of painting. If he had one hundred percent vision, then he would never have created his masterpieces, the genre of which the journalists called "impressionism".
Claude Monet, Antibes, Afternoon Effect
Fame and recognition allowed him to move to the town of Giverny, where he created his legendary gardens that bloomed all year round. He did it on purpose, the reason is immediately clear - so that there is something to draw and what to look at, regardless of the season. Now this place is an open-air museum and an iconic cultural site in France. Additionally, you can read about the gardens of Giverny in the material.
Batignolles group in full force. Manet (with cane and hat) and Monet (with pipe) analyze the unfinished painting.
Manet sharply opposed academic forms of creativity, but throughout almost his entire life he had a deep respect for the traditions of some great masters, whose direct or indirect influence is manifested in many of his works ("Balcony", 1868-1869, Musée d'Orsay, Paris; " Over a mug of beer", 1873, Collection K. Tisen, Philadelphia).
The nature of his painting is largely determined by the experience of his predecessors: the great Spaniards Velasquez and F. Goya, the famous Dutch master F. Hals, the French painters O. Daumier and G. Courbet, but also by the desire to step over the existing traditions and create a new, modern, reflecting the world around art. The first step on this path were two paintings that sounded like a challenge to official art: Luncheon on the Grass (1863, Musee d'Orsay, Paris) and Olympia (1863, Musee d'Orsay, Paris). After they were written, the artist was subjected to severe criticism from the public and the press, only a small group of artists rose to his defense, among whom were C. Monet, E. Degas, P. Cezanne and others, and only E. Zola reflected the attacks of journalists. In gratitude, in 1868, E. Manet painted a portrait of the writer (Orsay Museum, Paris), which is a classic example of characterizing a model with the help of still life details.
The Impressionists considered E. Manet their ideological leader and predecessor. But his art is much broader and does not fit into the framework of one direction, although the artist has always supported the Impressionists in their fundamental views on art regarding working in the open air and reflecting a fleeting impression of the real world. The so-called impressionism of E. Manet is closer to the painting of Japanese masters. He simplifies the motifs, balancing the decorative and the real in them, creates a generalized idea of what he saw: a pure impression, devoid of unnecessary details, an expression of the joy of sensation ("On the Seashore", 1873, Collection of J. Doucet, Paris). E. Manet repeatedly participated in joint work with C. Monet and O. Renoir on the banks of the Seine, where the main motive of his paintings is bright blue water ("In a Boat", 1874, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York). E. Manet loves to draw a person against the backdrop of a landscape, conveying a sense of the freshness of nature with his facial expressions, gestures and expressive postures ("Argenteuil", 1874, Museum of Art, Tournai).
Closest to the impressionistic perception of the world is the painting "Boat - workshop of C. Monet" (1874, New Pinakothek, Munich), in which, using additional yellow and blue strokes, the artist achieves a complete illusion of the vibrating movement of water, shaded by a boat. It cannot be said that this work in the open air greatly changed the artist's creative style, but it significantly enriched his pictorial palette. So, he abandoned the use of pure black, especially when painting landscapes, and replaced it with a combination of separate strokes of different colors.
In 1874, E. Manet traveled to Venice, the impressions of which resulted in a series of impressionistic paintings painted with vigorous strokes ("Canal Grande in Venice", 1875, Provident Security Company, San Francisco).
In the late period of his work, E. Manet departs from impressionism and returns to his former style. In the mid 1870s. he enthusiastically works with pastel, which helped him to use the achievements of the Impressionists in the field of color analysis, while maintaining his own idea of \u200b\u200bthe balance between silhouette and volume ("Woman tying a stocking", 1880, Nansen Collection, Copenhagen). The work of E. Manet with pastel helped to soften his pictorial manner even in those cases when he described far from poetic images inspired by the works of contemporary writers ("Nana", 1877, Kunsthalle, Hamburg; "At Papa Lathuille", 1879, Museum, Turin ). The pinnacle of E. Manet's work is his famous painting "The Bar at the Folies Bergère" (1882, Warburg and Courtauld Institute Gallery, London), which is a synthesis of the transience, instability, transience inherent in impressionism, and the constancy, stability and permanence inherent in the classical direction in art. The clear foreground of the picture is opposed to the back - an obscure and almost fantastic mirror image. This work can be considered a program in the work of E. Manet, as it reflects his favorite themes: still life, portrait, various lighting effects, crowd movement.
E. Manet received official recognition in 1882, when he was awarded the Order of the Legion of Honor - the main award of France.
