Édouard Manet was a French Impressionist painter born on January 23, 1832. He was one of Impressionism’s most influential artists.
Manet’s father and mother were a judge and a daughter of a diplomat, respectively. Great achievements in law were expected of Édouard, but when his uncle took him to the Louvre and encouraged him to pursue art, he did. He was unable to make it into the Navy and after that, he had his father’s support. He joined the College Rollin and after a time, he studied under Thomas Couture, who trained several pivotal artists.
Manet opened a studio in 1856. His style was loose and he simplified details, focusing on the spirit of the scene rather than its minor components. His subject matter was everyday life.
Manet was passively a driving force in the development of Impressionism; his work inspired other artists, though he did not participate in Impressionist exhibitions. He wanted to be his own artist, not categorized as part of a unit. He himself was inspired by artists such as Monet.
Emile Zola said of him, “We are not accustomed to seeing such simple and direct translations of reality. Then, as I said, there is such a surprisingly elegant awkwardness … it is a truly charming experience to contemplate this luminous and serious painting which interprets nature with a gentle brutality.”^1
Below are shown The Old Musician and With Father Lathuille.
^1 Manet, Édouard, Mary Anne Stevens, and Lawrence W. Nichols. Manet: Portraying Life. Toledo: Toledo Museum of Art. 2012. p. 168. ISBN 9781907533532