The French painter and graphic artist is regarded as an influential forerunner of Impressionism. It was an thought he first approaches to modern art. As one of the most vital painters of the 19th Century, the artist often misunderstood by his contemporaries because he violated prevailing principles of style and taste of the time. In this regard, above all the two works “The Luncheon on the Grass” (1863) and “Olympia” (1863) should be mentioned. Several of his exhibitions have been resolved and scorned. In his later work was increasingly determine the tendency of Impressionism. Yet Manet never participated in their exhibitions …
Edouard Manet was born on 23 January 1832 born son of an employee of the Justice Ministry in Paris.
With his father’s wish he should study law, but at this training course he refused. In the years 1850 to 1856 by Thomas Couture Manet did in his studio to teach in the painting. He also studied works by Titian in the Louvre (Titiano Vecelli), Giorgione (Giorgio da Castelfranco), Tintoretto (Jacopo Robusti), Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Velázquez and Delacroix Ferdinand Victor Eugène and copied them. He made trips to Italy, Holland, Germany and Austria to study. With the image of “guitar” (1860) he achieved in 1861 an award.
Manet always struggled for recognition as an artist. But soon he rejected both the audience and the art critic. 1959 his painting “The Absinthe Drinker” by the Paris Salon was rejected for exhibition. 1863 was the painting “The Luncheon on the Grass”. His exhibition was rejected by the Paris Salon. When published in the Salon des Refuses, it caused a scandal. Two years later the same happened with the painting “Olympia” (1863), which was open in the same salon to the public. It shows a naked woman lying down and is contrary to the prevailing taste of the contemporary nude painting.
Manet chose his models from honestly unimpressed by the existing principles of style and are more oriented to the Ancient Masters. Thus, the model was to “Olympia,” Titian’s painting “Venus of Urbino” off. And for his title “The Luncheon on the Grass” Manet took suggestions from Giorgione’s “Country” concept. Above all these pictures are characterized in their expression of a pronounced contrast between light and dark tones. You remember the two-dimensional forms and the lush black impart of Japanese woodblock prints.
In 1865 Edouard Manet made a trip to Madrid. There he was intensively with the works of master painters from the 17th Century, such as Francisco de Zurbarán, Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (Bartolome Esteban Perez) and Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Velázquez in touch. Special impressions leaving behind the work of Spanish painter, etcher and lithographer José Francisco de Goya y Lucientes. The artists she worked example in the works “The Execution of Emperor Maximilian of Mexico” (1867) and “The Balcony” (around 1868-1869).
Then changed his subjects. Manet often painted scenes of contemporary Paris. Despite the general rejection of his paintings, he had just seen in young artists and was highly praised by them as martyrs. During this time he had regular contact with the impressionists such as Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, Alfred Sisley, Paul Cezanne, Auguste Renoir and Berthe Morisot. Manet’s works, he was not an Impressionist obleich served them as a model. Support against the contemporary criticism of the artists found in the writers Stéphane Mallarmé, Charles Baudelaire and Emile Zola, with whom he was friends.
In the first half of the seventies of the 19th Century was inspired by Manet, Claude Monet and Berthe Morisot for plein air painting. Likewise, practicing the encounter with the painter Frans Hals, whom he met on a trip made in 1872 to Holland, one of Manet’s influence on creativity. His coloring is visibly brighter and lost his brush apply of rigor. In 1874, he met with Claude Monet at Argenteuil, where she worked. Manet became ill early eighties, a previously kaput paralysis became apparent.
Then he could devote himself as from the year 1881 only the pastel technique because it is not so hard to deal with it fell. Portraits made in this period with fantastic delicacy, such as “blonde woman with bare breasts” (around 1878) or “The Viennese” (1880). The painting “Bar at the Folies-Bergere” was built between 1881 and 1882, which is among the most vital in this phase. But, did not hide his brilliant depictions of the mundane city life’s darker side. In his later work was increasingly determine the tendency of Impressionism. Yet Manet never participated in their exhibitions.
In 1881 it received the Medal of the Legion of Honor was open. In view of the fact that the late 1870s, Manet suffered from syphilis. On 20 April 1883 it was amputated the left leg.
Edouard Manet died on 30 April 1883 on the consequences of a leg amputation.
