Edouard Manet

Regarded as an impressionist, Edouard Manet's admitted association with the impressionists was only his subject matter. He preferred a more classical approach to the technique of painting. Manet was born in Paris on January 23, 1832. His father was a high offical in the french ministry and wanted his son to study law. In 1850, against his father's advice, he began to study painting under the tutelage of respected academic painter Thomas Couture. During his travels in Europe he was exposed to the great masters such as Frans Hals, Goya and Velasquez who were an early influence on his work. The two paintings which gave Manet his reputation as a nonconformist and the title "father of impressionism" are Dejeuner sur l'Herbe(1863) and Olympia(1865). Both were rejected by the Salon. Olympia was aggressively provocative, being a modern unidealized rendering of a nude, a deliberated updating of Titian's Urbino Venus. The composition and the bold stare of the nude make this painting a completely modern scene. Manet made no excuses for the outraged responses. In 1866 he became friends with novelist Emile Zola after he wrote a favorable article in the newspaper Figaro. Manet served as an officer in the french army from 1870-1871. When the Bar at the Follies-Bergere was exhibited in 1882, he was awarded the Legion of Honor by the minister of fine art who was an old friend. He died in Paris on April 30, 1883.

Edouard Manet Images:
A Bar at the Folies - Bergere
Bar at the Folies Bergere
Bock Drinkers
Claude Monet Painting On His Studio Boat
Girl In The Garden At Bellevue
The Battle of the Kearsarge and the Alabama.
The Grand Canal Venice
The Masked Ball At The Opera
Villa at Rueil