Édouard Manet – The French Modernist Painter

Édouard Manet - One of France's Great Painters

The French Modernist Painter - It's been said that if you’re after some of the world’s best art, there’s really no better place to be than France. And while I don't want to say France is the only country with amazing art museums, it is true that the country is home to a wide variety of world-class museums. The Louvre, the Musée D’Orsay, and the Centre Pompidou are grand and well known but there are also many lesser-known museums and galleries to choose to visit.

Paris is an art lover's heaven and I feel you can never visit the city and its famous museums too many times, there are always new exhibitions and installations to surprise you. Visiting the ArtCurial art auction house regularly is a great way of seeing special artworks.

Édouard Manet paints Modern Life

Édouard Manet is a painter that I've learnt more about over time and come to appreciate even more. Born in Paris on 23 January 1832 and dying on 30 April 1882, Manet is considered to be one of the first 19th century artists to paint modern life. 

Édouard Manet - Transition from Realism to Impressionism

His work is very important in the transition from Realism to Impressionism. He was a friend of Claude Monet, an Impressionist painter of the same era. 

He was born into an affluent and prestigious family with his mother, Eugénie-Desirée Fournier, the daughter of a diplomat and his father, Auguste Manet, a French judge.  Manet's father wanted him to follow in his footsteps and pursue a career in law, but Manet who had shown a love of painting and visited the Louvre with his uncle Edmond Fournier, preferred to paint.

Édouard Manet Follows his Passion for Art

At around 16 years of age Manet sailed on a training vessel to Rio de Janeiro and after failing the entrance exam to join the Navy twice, his father gave in and allowed him to pursue an art education. Manet studied from 1850 to 1856 with academic painter Thomas Couture and then opened his own studio.

Manet was friends with the Impressionist painters Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Alfred Sisley, Paul Cézanne and Camille Pissarro and was part of the Parisian painting group.

The Rue Mosnier with Flags - Édouard Manet

Manet's painting of 'The Rue Mosnier with Flags' (above) was painted to commemorate the holiday afternoon celebrations of 30 June 1878. The day was declared a national holiday in honour of the luxurious and prosperous Exposition Universelle.

The Gare Saint-Lazare - Édouard Manet

'The Railway' which is widely known as 'The Gare Saint-Lazare' was painted in 1873 and is set in an urban Parisian landscape. Manet used his favourite model in this painting and she's sitting in a rather relaxed manner outside the railway station along the railings with a sleeping puppy and open book. 

Not warmly received on its first hanging at the official Paris Salon of 1874, the painting is now considered the symbol of modernity of its time. The inclusion of the railings showcases the modern way of painting everyday life. It seems incredible to me in our modern age, that the simple inclusion of the railway fence created so much discussion and debate at the time of the painting's release.

In the Conservatory - Édouard Manet

'In the Conservatory' hangs in the Berlin State Museum and is dated 1879. It shows a couple of Manet's friends, Mr and Mrs Guillemets, relaxing in a conservatory.

The conservatory was owned by painter Georg von Rosen and located at 70 Rue d'Amsterdam, Paris. Manet used his friend Georg's conservatory as a studio for about nine months in 1878 to 1879 and painted this while in the studio. When walking down Rue d'Amsterdam, the building looks like any other today, but I can only imagine how nice the conservatory with all its green plants must have been when Manet was working there.

The painting when exhibited in the Paris Salon was said to portray "the elegance of fashionable life" which I think very nicely describes the snapshot into life we can see.

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