Edouard Manet (1832-1883) was born into a rich family, in Paris. He was a painter of everyday life. He portrayed people amid their day to day activities. He was the proponent of individuality and sought freedom in painting. Manet was one among the famous three painters, the other two contemporaries being, Claude Monet and Pierre-Auguste Renoir, who were responsible for the origin of the Impressionist movement in the 1860s.

Comradery with other Painters

Manet first met Claude Monet in 1866. But it was from 1874 that Manet and Monet developed a friendship and they were painting on the banks of the Seine. His most luminous en plein-air painting, Boating (1874) was made at this period of time. The painting depicted two figures seated in a boat in the sun. Manet also painted ‘Monet Painting on His Studio Boat‘ (1874) at Argenteuil. Although Manet was friendly with Monet and other like-minded painters, he was not participating in their independent exhibitions. Manet was already submitting his paintings to the official Salon. When the 1875 Salon rejected his paintings ‘The Artist’ and ‘Laundry‘, he exhibited them in his studio along with paintings.

Unofficial Head of Painters

The Impressionist style of painting followed by Manet was also said to be the reason why The Salon was rejecting his paintings during his lifetime. Manet and Monet were painter friends from Paris and both of them, together with Pierre-Auguste Renoir, were prime movers of the art movement called Impressionism. They were renowned painters of their time. In the 1860s, the Impressionists began meeting near Manet’s studio at Cafe Guerbois. Manet was the unofficial head of the twice-weekly meetings. Besides these three painters, Edgar Degas, Alfred Sisley, Emile Zone and sometimes Paul Cezanne and Pissarro also participated.

Manet, a rebel

Manet almost kept away from painting traditional themes such as religion, history and mythology as subjects of his painting. These were the normal subjects which the Salon was approving for exhibition. Manet was the proponent of realism of his subjects for painting and wanted to paint them as they really are without idealizing them. This was clearly a departure from the tradition followed by classical artists. Manet’s famous works, ‘The Luncheon on the Grass and Olympia are examples of his marked departure from realism to impressionism.

Manet preferred to paint with his models in front of him and he was completing his paintings in one sitting. He could achieve this feat by choosing the color right off without having to fall back on layers as most other painters did. If and when there were any mistakes, he scarped off the paint down to the canvas and repainted that area. Manet’s famous paintings Olympia and The Luncheon on the Grass are examples of this technique. Thereafter, other impressionists adopted this ‘alla prima’ or ‘at once’ technique. Without this technique, it would not have been possible for them to paint fast enough to capture the shifting effects of light on the painting.

‘The Luncheon on the Grass’

Some of Manet’s paintings were not finding favors with the Salon at that time. An example of such ill-treatment at the hands of the Salon was his painting ‘The Luncheon on the Grass‘. Manet produced this painting in 1862-63. This painting depicts a group of people comprising two men and two women. The two fully clothed men are apparently engaged in some kind of discussion while one of the two women sitting in the foreground is painted nude. She has her right hand on her chin and her face and gaze turned toward the viewer. Her dress is seen stashed away on the ground behind her.

There is also another woman seen standing in knee-deep water in the background. While her right hand is dipped in water, she is trying to hold her clothing from falling with her left hand. The portrayal of one of the women in the painting was considered obscene as it did not relate to any mythological figure. The painting came to be called ‘inappropriate’ as the character in the depiction was only that of an ordinary woman.

‘Olympia’

Manet’s other painting, Olympia, became a subject matter of controversy as the subject of this art piece was a nude woman, possibly a prostitute. The controversy around the painting arose because the subject characterised in this painting related to an ordinary woman and that of an idealised or mythological figure. In this picture, the woman is seen lying down on some kind of bed with her shoes on. One can also see a black cat on the edge of the bed and another woman standing with a flower bouquet in her hand.

‘Nana’

Manet finished his painting ‘Nana’ in 1877. This excellent piece of painting did not receive the welcome gesture that it deserved from the Salon de Paris in 1878. Manet displayed this picture in the window of a store on the Boulevard des Capucines, which is one of Paris’ principal thoroughfares. The reputation that Manet commanded in Paris drew the attention of people to its display. The painting shows a young lady standing in front of a mirror, her head turned toward the viewer. She is seen wearing an unfinished gown, a white chemise, a blue corset, silk stockings and high-heeled shoes. The painting also shows a well-dressed man in a hat sitting behind her on a couch. The entire room around the lady is well furnished.

‘Self-portrait with Palette’

Edouard Manet’s ‘Self-Portrait with Palette‘ is one of the only two self-portraits that he created during his lifetime. He completed this painting during the period between 1878 and 1879. Experts feel that famous artist Velasquez’s self-portrait in Las Meninas inspired Manet to paint his self-portrait. This painting sold for $29.48 million in 2010. Researches say that Manet painted his ‘Self-Portrait with Palette’ over a profile portrait of his wife Suzanne Manet. Manet’s painting ‘Madame Manet at the Piano‘ portrays Suzanne Manet in a stance similar to the one depicted in this painting.

Value of Manet’s Paintings’

In a recently held sale of paintings at Sotheby’s, the only blockbusters slated were Edouard Manet’s impressionist painting Le Printemps (1881) and the price of this painting was estimated at US$25-35 million. Manet cast French actress Jeanne Demarsy as an ‘allegory of spring’ with a specially designed flowered dress, a parasol and a blossom-bedecked bonnet. Manet painted her profile in this painting and the experts likened it to the early Renaissance portraits of young ‘noblewomen’. The bids were raised in half-million dollars and the painting finally sold for a premium price of US$ 65.1 million.