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Edouard Manet Biography
Edouard Manet - 1832-1883.
French painter, whose work inspired the impressionist style, but who
refused to so label his own work. His far-reaching influence on French
painting and the general development of modern art was due to his
portrayal of everyday subject matter; his use of broad, simple color
areas; and a vivid, summary brush technique. Manet was born in Paris
on January 23, 1832, the son of a high government official. To avoid
studying law, as his father wished, he went to sea. He then studied
in Paris under the academic French painter Thomas Couture and visited
Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands to study the paintings of the
old masters. The Dutch painter Frans Hals and the Spanish artists
Diego Velazquez, and Francisco Jose de Goya were the principal influences
on his art. Manet began to paint genre (everyday) subjects, such as
old beggars, street urchins, cafe characters, and Spanish bullfight
scenes. He adopted a direct, bold brush technique in his treatment
of realistic subject matter. In 1863 his famous Le dÈjeuner sur l'herbe
(MusÈe d'Orsay, Paris) was shown at the Salon des RefusÈs, a new exhibition
place opened by Napoleon III following the protests of artists rejected
at the official Salon. Manet's canvas, portraying a woodland picnic
that included a seated female nude attended by two fully dressed young
men, attracted immediate and wide attention, but was bitterly attacked
by the critics. Hailed by young painters as their leader, Manet became
the central figure in the dispute between the academic and rebellious
art factions of his time. In 1864 the official Salon accepted two
of his paintings, and in 1865 he exhibited his Olympia (1863, MusÈe
d'Orsay), a nude based on a Venus by Titian, which aroused storms
of protest in academic circles because of its unorthodox realism.
In 1866 the French novelist Emile Zola, who championed the art of
Manet in the newspaper Figaro, became a close friend of the painter.
He was soon joined by the young group of French impressionist painters,
Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, Auguste Renoir, Alfred Sisley, Camille
Pissarro, and Paul Cezanne, who were influenced by Manet's art and
who, in turn, influenced him, particularly in the use of lighter colors
and an emphasis on the effects of light. Manet served as an officer
in the French army from 1870 to 1871, during the Franco-Prussian War.
He did not gain recognition until late in life, when his portraits
became much sought after. In 1882 one of his finest pictures, The
Bar at the Folies-BergËre (Courtauld Institute and Galleries, London),
was exhibited at the Salon, and an old friend, who was then minister
of fine arts, obtained the Legion of Honor for the artist. Manet died
in Paris on April 30, 1883. He left, besides many watercolors and
pastels, 420 oil paintings.
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