Edouard Manet

Edouard Manet (1832-1883) was a highly influential French painter of the 19th century. He was the forerunner of the impressionists, and he is considered by many to be the father of modern art.

Early Life

Bar at the Folies-Bergere, 1882.

Manet was born on January 23, 1832, to parents Auguste and Eugenie-Desiree. In 1848, at the age of sixteen, he embarked on the ship Le Hauvre et Guackloupe as a cabin boy. He was at sea for six months. Upon his return to Paris, he was able to persuade his family to allow him to devote himself to painting. He used to copy the old masters in the Louvre. He absorbed the influences of Velázquez and Francisco Goya.

Career

Manet was, arguably, the most scandalous painter of his time. His nudes (particularly "The Picnic" and "Olympia") were the cause of great public uproar. His sketchy, spontaneous, and sometimes brutally honest technique inspired the most pivotal art movement since the renaissance - impressionism. He completed painting his last masterpiece, A Bar at the Folies-Bergère (Le Bar aux Folies-Bergère), in 1882.

Manet, like his good friend Edgar Degas, was a self-confessed urbanite, and many his works depicted life in the city. He died in Paris in 1883. He was only 51.

Masterpieces

La Negresse, 1862-63.

• 1859 The Absinthe Drinker
• 1860 Spanish Singer
• 1863 Dejeuner sur l'herbe
• 1863 Olympia
• 1865 Bullfight
• 1868 The Luncheon
• 1882 The Bar at the Folies-Bergère

Some clearly Impressionist works

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  Portrait de Claude Monet peignant sur son bateau-atelier a Argenteuil, 1874.

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  L'Evasion de Rochefort, 1881.

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  A Path in the Garden at Rueil, 1882.

See also

• Gallery of French Masterpieces
• French painting
• Pierre-Auguste Renoir
• Claude Monet
• Leonardo da Vinci

External links

• Manet
• Edouard Manet - Biography Humanities Web.

Olympia