Manet Page 4: Self-Portrait with a Palette, 1879. Oil on canvas, 83 x 67 cm, Mr et Mrs John L. Loeb collection, New York. Designed by: Baseline Co Ltd 127-129A Nguyen Hue, Floor 3, District 1, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam © Sirrocco, London, UK (English version) © Confidential Concepts, worldwide, USA All rights reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced or adapted without the permission of the copyright holder, throughout the world. Unless otherwise specified, copyrights on the works reproduced lies with the respective photographers. Despite intensive research, it has not always been possible to establish copyright ownership. Where this is the case we would appreciate notification ISBN 978-1-78042-029-5 2 “He was greater than we thought he was.” — Edgar Degas 3 Biography 1832: Born Edouard Manet 23 January in Paris, France. His father is Director of the Ministry of Justice. Edouard receives a good education. 1844: Enrols into Rollin College where he meets Antonin Proust who will remain his friend throughout his life. 1848: After having refused to follow his family’s wishes of becoming a lawyer, Manet attempts twice, but to no avail, to enrol into Naval School. He boards a training ship in order to travel to Brazil. 1849: Stays in Rio de Janeiro for two years before returning to Paris. 1850: Returns to the School of Fine Arts. He enters the studio of artist Thomas Couture and makes a number of copies of the master works in the Louvre. 1852: His son Léon is born. He does not marry the mother, Suzanne Leenhoff, a piano teacher from Holland, until 1863. His son, Léon-Edouard Leenhoff, who will pose as his model, was officially presented as the little brother of Suzanne and the godson of Manet. 1853: Travels throughout Europe (Kassel, Dresden, Prague, Vienna, Munich, Florence and Rome), where he visits the major museums. Travels to Italy where he makes a copy of Titian’s Venus d’Urbinowhich will inspire his Olympia. 1855: Meets Eugène Delacroix in his studio in Notre-Dame. 1856: Leaves the studio of Thomas Couture to find his own. Visits the Rijksmuseum of Amsterdam. 1857: Meets the artist Henri Fantin-Latour at the Louvre. 1858: Meets the poet Charles Boudelaire. 1859: Gets to know Degas at the Louvre. Submits his first piece to the Salon, The Absinthe Drinkerwhich is refused. 1860: Moves in with Suzanne and Léon into an apartment in Batignolles. Becomes a regular at the café Guerbois where he meets up with his friends. 1861: Exhibits for the first time at the Salon with his Portrait of Mr and Mrs Auguste Manetand The Spanish Singer, which receives an honourable mention. 1862: Paints his first large-scale canvas, Music in the Tuilerieswhich is poorly received by the public. His father dies. He meets Victorine Meurent who will become his favourite model (Olympia, Luncheon on the Grass, Miss Victorine Meurent in the Costume of an Espada, The Street Singer, etc.). 1863: Marries Suzanne Leenhoff in Holland. Exhibits a series of fourteen ‘Spanish’ canvases at the Martinet gallery. Along with other works, exhibits one of his major works, Luncheon on the Grass, at the Salon des Refusés. Eugene Delacroix dies. 1864: Manet is on vacation near the coast of Boulogne when a battle breaks out between two opposing American vessels of the war of the Secession. He paints The Battle of the Kearsarge and the Alabama. 1865: Exhibits Olympia,painted in 1863, which provokes a scandal at the Salon. Travels to Spain, where the art has always had an influence on his work. 5 6 1866: Zola becomes friends with Manet after having come to the artist’s defence in Le Figaro. Manet will paint his portrait in 1874. The Piperand The Tragic Actorare refused at the Salon. 1867: At the time of the Universal Exhibition, he organises a personal exhibition of his work in a private building. His competitor, Gustave Courbet, does the same. Publication of a brochure on Manet, put together by Émile Zola that includes an engraving of Olympia, as well as a portrait of the artist. The death of Charles Boudelaire deeply distresses the artist, inspiring Enterrement (The Funeral). 1868: In October, Parisians discover on the walls of their city a poster of Manet promoting the publication of a book by his friend Champfleury, The Cats: history, deaths, observations and anecdotes. Meets the artist Berthe Morisot, who poses for him. She will become Manet’s sister-in-law and their relationship will remain slightly ambiguous. 1868: Exhibits two canvases at the official Salon, The Balcony and Luncheon in the Studio, but the final version of The Execution of the Emperor Maximilienis refused. 1870: 1 September, the French army surrenders to Seudan, leader of the Prussian army who invaded France. On the 19 September, the siege of Paris begins. Manet remains in the capital until the 12 February, where he joins the the National Guard and takes part in the resistance as a gunner. 1872: Settles into his studio on 4, rue de Saint-Pétersbourg, next to the Western railway line. Produces his piece The Railway, St. Lazare Station.Regularly frequents the Café La Nouvelle Athènes, where every day he meets his friends, fellow artists, critics and writers. The café will be shown in his canvases, The Absinthe Drinkerand The Prune, two examples of his works that are said to be ‘Naturalist’. 1873: Meets the poet Stéphane Mallarmé. 1874: Despite his friendship with Claude Monet, he refuses to take part in the first Impressionist exhibition. Spends the Summer at Gennevilliers, near Argenteuil where the Monet family lives. There he will paint their portrait, The Monet Family in their Garden at Argenteuil. Exhibits Argenteuil, then travels to Venice. 1876: Publication of Mallarmé’s book, L’Après-midi d’un faune (The Afternoon of the Faun),illustrated by Manet, who also paints a portrait of the author. 1877: Paints Nana, evidence of his connections with the work of Emile Zola. 1880: At the request of his friend Antonin Proust, creates two symbolic feminine portraits, titled The Spring and The Autumn. Also paints the Portrait of Georges Clémenceau at the Tribune. 1881: His childhood friend, Antonin Proust becomes the Minister of Culture. Awarded the Legion of Honour by the French Government. 1882: His health deteriorates and prevents him from working. Exhibition of his last great canvas, At the Bar at the Folies-Bergère, at the Salon. 1883: Manet dies on 30 April due to gangrene ten days after the amputation of his left leg. 1884: Organisation of the posthumous exhibition in honour of Manet the Master. 1893: Thanks to his friends, Manet’s Olympiais bought and transferred to the Louvre, by the personal order of president Clemenceau, where it is exhibited opposite Ingres’ Grande Odalisque (Large Odalisque). 7 ÉDOUARD MANET (1832-1883) T he art of Manet was one of the most important aesthetic factors contributing to the emergence of Impressionism. Although he was only twelve years older than Monet, Bazille, Renoir, and Sisely, those painters considered him a master. “Manet was as important to us as Cimabue and Giotto were for the painters of the Italian Renaissance”, Renoir told his son. The originality of Manet’s painting and his independence from academic canons opened new creative horizons for the Impressionists. Manet’s biography reads like that of many artists: his wealthy family of the Paris bourgeoisie wanted their son to be a lawyer, not an artist-painter. The Absinthe Drinker 1858-1859 Oil on canvas, 180.5 x 105.6 cm Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen 8 9 As a compromise, it was decided Manet would become a sailor. After failing the entrance exams for the Naval Academy, he boarded a sailing ship called the Havre and Guadeloupe as a sixteen-year-old apprentice and set off across the Atlantic. The romantic voyage to Rio de Janeiro only intensified Manet’s desire to devote himself to art. Returning to Le Havre in 1849, he nevertheless tried again to get into the Naval Academy, but (luckily for him) failed a second time. In 1850, with his school friend Antonin Proust, Manet entered the studio of Thomas Couture. Couture was still participating in the Salon and made a name for himself in 1847 with a huge canvas called The Romans of the Decadence (Musée d’Orsay, Paris). Boy with Cherries 1858-1859 Oil on canvas, 65.5 x 54.5 cm Museu Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon 10