Manet's "Breakfast on the Grass" and "Olympia" are the stars of the Salon of Outcasts

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

His fate is full of contradictions. Manet's paintings challenged bourgeois morality, and he himself came from a prosperous we althy family, and his father's opinion was very important to him.

He copied the masterpieces of old masters in the Louvre for a long time and really wanted to exhibit in the official Salon, and his works shocked with unusual plots and free painting style.

Biography. Rough start

Édouard Manet was born in Paris in 1832. Father is a high-ranking official of the Ministry of Justice, mother is the daughter of a prominent diplomat. He was given every opportunity to get an education and start a solid career. But studying at prestigious boarding houses and colleges is not for him. Fifteen-year-old Eduard tries to enter the seafarer, fails and goes to sea as a cabin boy to try out the next year. During the voyage, he draws a lot, since then Manet's paintings often contain marine motifs.

He repeatedly fails his exams. The father sees his son's work and resigns himself to the fact that he will not be an official or a prosperous bourgeois. Edward becomes a student of the fairly well-known academic master Tom Couture, studies paintingclassical masterpieces in different cities of Europe, spends a lot of time in the Louvre. But the style of Manet's first significant works is not traditional.

First exhibitions

Exhibiting at the Paris Salon of Painting means getting professional recognition. It is visited by up to half a million spectators. The works, selected by a commission specially appointed by the government, guarantee the artist fame, and, consequently, orders and income.

Manet's painting "The Absinthe Drinker" (1858-59) was rejected by the jury of the Salon, the realistic theme turned out to be too unusual, the artist handled perspective and halftones too freely - sacred concepts for the academic school.

But in 1861, two paintings by Manet at once - "Portrait of Parents" and "Guitarero" are exhibited at the Salon. The recognition of specialists and art lovers was especially important for the artist's father.

Breakfast on the Grass

For the Salon of 1863, Manet painted an amazing picture. The composition and plot were inspired by Raphael's Judgment of Paris and Giorgione's Country Concert. At first, the artist called the canvas "Bathing", but then it became known as "Breakfast on the Grass". Manet's painting became an event.

The canvas is rather large, which at that time suggested the use of a battle or multi-figure biblical plot. And we see a picnic scene of two men and two women, one of whom, in the background, is swimming in the lake. Men dressed in evening suits are carried away by a conversation among themselves, and seem not to noticedefiant nudity of a woman nearby. Her clothes are casually thrown off on the grass, her body is dazzling under the bright frontal light, and there is no escape from her defiant gaze directed at the viewer.

Each viewer saw their "Breakfast on the Grass". Manet's painting is enigmatic. The surrounding landscape is painted without perspective and shadows, like scenery in a provincial theater. The bather is clearly out of scale with her surroundings. A bird, frozen above those sitting, like a target in a shooting range, looks like a bullfinch, but a bullfinch in summer? Obviously there is some kind of story, but the artist does not try to explain it, leaving the viewer to speculate.

The characters of the outrageous picnic had a portrait resemblance to specific people from the artist's environment: his brother Gustav and brother-in-law Ferdinand Leenhof. The female model also had a name - Quiz Meran, and a specific fame, which was hinted at by a frog in the lower left corner of the picture - a symbol of voluptuousness. The scandal was huge.

Salon of Outcasts

The 1863 Salon jury was as strict as ever. Manet's paintings were rejected. Less than half of the five thousand submitted works were selected, and the artists complained to the emperor himself. Napoleon III, then ruling, personally examined the rejected paintings and did not find much difference from the accepted ones. He recommended that an alternative exhibition be arranged. The salon of the outcasts was visited by no less spectators than the official one.

Manet's painting became a sensation. She was admired, but most of them scolded, laughed at her, parodied her, there were only indifferent ones. This was repeated in 1865 with another Manet masterpiece.

Olympia

Again, the master was inspired by the masterpiece of the past. This time it was Titian's Venus of Urbino. Venus Manet has the body of Quiz Meran, far from ancient proportions. It was she who made the visitors of the Salon - faithful spouses and respectable ascetics - resent. I had to put a policeman to protect the canvas from the pricks of umbrellas and spitting.

Venus became known as Olympia. Manet's painting evoked direct associations among contemporaries with the courtesan from Dumas's novel The Lady of the Camellias. Only those who did not think about moral principles could immediately appreciate the master's magnificent painting skills, the expressiveness of the composition, and the exquisite palette.

Manet the Impressionist

Around the artist gradually formed a society of those who would become the personification of the brightest artistic trend in painting - impressionism. Edouard Manet is an artist whose paintings were not exhibited at exhibitions along with Degas, Renoir, Cezanne. He considered himself independent of any unions and associations, but was friends and worked together with Claude Monet and other representatives of the style.

And most importantly, he shared their views on painting, when the ability to see and express the finest nuances in nature and in man becomes the main thing for an artist.