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Edouard Manet
Edouard Manet was born in Paris, France, January 23, 1832. One of the first 19th century artists to approach modern-life subjects, his works bridged the gap between realism and Impressionism. His mother, Eug�nie-Desir�e Fournier, was the goddaughter of a Swedish prince, and his father, Auguste Manet, was a French judge. He wanted Edouard to also pursue a career in law, but �douard wanted a career in the arts.
His uncle, Charles Fournier, encouraged him to pursue painting seriously; he often took young Edouard Manet to exhibitions at the Louvre. From 1850-1856, after failing his naval examinations, Edouard Manet went to study under academic painter Thomas Couture. He would copy the Old Masters in the Louvre in his spare time. He spent some time visiting Germany, Italy and the Netherlands, during which time he absorbed the influences of the Dutch painter Frans Hals and the Spanish artists Diego Velasquez and Francisco Jos� de Goya. Edouard Manet, in imitation of the current style of Realism initiated by Gustave Courbet, painted many everyday subjects such as beggars, caf�s and bullfights. One of Manet's most famous paintings is "Le D�jeuner sur l'Herbe" ("The Lunch on the Grass"). The Salon refused to exhibit it in 1863 but he exhibited it at the Salon des Refus�s ("Exhibition of Refused Works") later in the year. Its juxtaposition of dressed men and a nude woman was controversial, as was its abbreviated sketch-like style - an innovation that distinguished Edouard Manet from Courbet. However, Manet's composition derived from Marcantonio Raimondi's engraving The judgment of Paris (c. 1510) after a drawing by Raphael. Manet was taking respected works by Renaissance artists and updating them, a practice he also adopted in "Olympia" (1863), a nude portrayed in a style that recalled the early studio photographs of the day, but which was based on Titian's "Venus of Urbino" (1538). The roughly-painted style and "photographic" lighting in these works was seen as specifically modern and a challenge to the Renaissance works Manet updated. His work is considered to be early modern because of its black outlining of figures that draws attention to the surface of the picture plane and the materiality of paint. Edouard Manet consistently believed that modern artists should seek to exhibit at the Salon rather than abandon it. He became friends with the Impressionists Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, Auguste Renoir, Alfred Sisley, Paul C�zanne and Camille Pissarro in part through his sister-in-law Berthe Morisot, who was a member of the group. His own work had influenced and anticipated the Impressionist style. However, Edouard Manet resisted involvement in Impressionist exhibitions, partly because he did not wish to be seen as the representative of a group identity, and partly because of his disapproval of their opposition to the Salon system. Nevertheless, when Manet was excluded from the International exhibition of 1867, he set up his own exhibition.
However, he was influenced by the Impressionists, especially by Monet, and to an extent, Morisot. Edouard Manet was influenced to use lighter colors. Nevertheless he retained his distinctive use of blocks of black, uncharacteristic of other Impressionists. He painted many plein air studies - paintings created outdoors - but always returned to what he considered serious work in the studio. Throughout his life, though resisted by art critics, Edouard Manet had many champions. He knew Emile Zola, who supported him publicly in the press, and Mallarm�, as well as Baudelaire, who had challenged him to depict life as it was. He in turn made many sketchings of them. In 1881, under pressure from his friend Antonin Proust, Edouard Manet was awarded the Legion of Honor by the French government. His last major work, "Le Bar aux Folies-Berg�re" ("A Bar at the Folies-Berg�re"), was painted in 1881-2. It was exhibited at the Salon that same year. Manet died of untreated syphilis, which caused him much pain and partial paralysis from locomotor ataxia in his late days. His left foot was amputated because of gangrene eleven days before he died.
He died in Paris, April 30, 1883, and is buried in the Cimeti�re de Passy, Paris.
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