Édouard Manet: A Guide to Manet’s Life and Paintings

Édouard Manet (1832–1883) was a pivotal figure in art history whose masterworks signaled the beginning of Modernism. Although his paintings were controversial, Manet was a quiet figure among the Impressionists, and he sought approval from the mainstream French art community throughout his career.

Manet’s work was controversial during his life, but his work had a significant influence on the young painters who came after him. A posthumous exhibition a year after his death granted Manet the recognition he strived for during his short career.

• Early life: Manet was born in 1832 in Paris, France, to an upper-middle-class family. His father, Auguste Manet, was a judge, and his mother, Eugénie-Désirée Fournier, was the daughter of a diplomat and goddaughter of the Swedish crown prince Charles Bernadotte.
• Studies: Manet enrolled in a drawing course at Collège Rollin, where he met Antonin Proust, who went on to become a journalist and politician and who served as the subject of several of Manet’s paintings. In 1848, at his father’s bidding, Manet sailed with a naval training vessel to Rio de Janeiro. After two failed attempts to become an officer in the navy, Manet began studying art in 1850 under painter Thomas Couture. Six years later, he started his own studio.
• Controversy: Manet’s work was influenced by old masters such as Diego Velázquez and Jusepe de Ribera, whose works he viewed in the Louvre and international museums. Manet caused controversy in the art world in 1863 when he exhibited his Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe (The Luncheon on the Grass) at the Salon des Refusés, an exhibition of rejects from the French government’s official salon. The subject and technique were considered vulgar, but art historians today consider Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe a watershed painting, marking the start of both Modernism and Impressionism.
• Personal life: Manet married Suzanne Leenhoff, his piano teacher and the mother of his son, in 1863. He was friends with a few noted Impressionist painters, including Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, and Auguste Renoir, although he did not join their Impressionist exhibitions. Constantly attacked by critics, Manet found a lifelong supporter in the writer Émile Zola.
• Later years: Manet suffered from complications of syphilis and turned to pastels as a less physically demanding medium. Manet developed gangrene in his left leg, which eventually had to be amputated. Shortly thereafter, in 1883, he died.

The evolution of Manet’s own style, from Realism to post-Impressionism, mirrors the evolution of the European art world—a few years ahead of schedule. Manet’s work is characterized by these three features:

1. 1. Classical references: Manet, considered a rebel in the French art scene, nonetheless respected his elders. He began his education copying paintings at the Louvre, and two of his most scandalous pieces—Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe and Olympia—were based on paintings by Titian.
2. 2. Modern life: Although Manet was influenced by and referenced the old masters in his work, his subjects came from everyday life in Paris. At the time, Manet’s work was radical for its lack of symbolism and narrative.
3. 3. Flattened perspective: Breaking with the dominant trend of realism, Manet’s early works shocked critics with their flattened perspective. Incident at a Bullfight (1862) in particular was criticized for its lack of traditional perspective.
4. 4. Loose brush strokes. Manet’s brush strokes were lively and broad. The smooth, dreamlike marks were visible, unlike the traditionally blended brush strokes of the time.

These are some of the most famous and compelling works of Manet’s career:

1. 1. Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe (1863): Although inspired by Titian’s Concert champêtre and Raphael's Judgement of Paris, this painting was novel for its depiction of a nude woman alongside a group of clothed men. The background is blurry with no clear perspective or depth—an early example of Impressionism.
2. 2. Olympia (1863): This homage to Titian’s Venus of Urbino scandalized critics for placing a prostitute in place of the goddess of love. Perched on a sofa, the subject is attended by a Black maid and a black cat. The high contrast of the white figure in the foreground and the dark background is another feature of Manet’s style.
3. 3. Le Bon Bock (1873): After a visit to the Netherlands in 1872, Manet painted this Frans Hals-inspired portrait of a man smoking a pipe and drinking a dark beer. Although the influence of the seventeenth-century Dutch master is evident, the sitter’s clothing is from Manet’s time.
4. 4. A Bar at the Folies-Bergère (1882): Manet’s last great work depicts a barmaid’s interaction with her customer. With the barmaid at the center of the painting, the viewer takes the place of the customer, who is visible in the mirror behind the bar along with an impressionistic sea of well-dressed customers. Instead of meeting the viewer’s gaze, the barmaid looks off to the left, perhaps lost in thought.

Grab the MasterClass Annual Membership and plumb the depths of your creativity with the help of modern artist Jeff Koons, abstract artist Futura, and stage designer Es Devlin. Our exclusive video lessons will teach you to do things like utilize color and scale, explore the beauty in everyday objects, and so much more.