His fate is full of contradictions. Manet's paintings challenged bourgeois morality, and he came from a well-to-do well-to-do family, and his father’s opinion was very important to him.
He copied the masterpieces of the old masters in the Louvre for a long time and really wanted to exhibit in the official Salon, and his work was shocked by unusual plots and a free pictorial manner.
Biography. Stormy beginning
Eduard Manet was born in Paris in 1832. His father is a senior official of the Ministry of Justice, his 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 a seafarer, fails and goes into the voyage of a young boy to try the next year. While swimming, he draws a lot, since then Manet's paintings often contain marine motifs.
He repeatedly fails the exams. The father sees the work of his son and resigns himself to the fact that he will not be an official or a prosperous bourgeois. Eduard becomes a student of a rather famous master of academic direction Tom Couture, he studies picturesque classical masterpieces in different cities of Europe, spends a lot of time in the Louvre. But the style of the first significant works of Manet does not look like the traditional one.
First exhibitions
To exhibit at the Paris Salon of Painting means to receive professional recognition. It is visited by up to half a million spectators. The works selected by the commission, which is specially appointed by the government, guarantee the artist fame, and, consequently, orders and revenues.
Mane’s painting “A Lover of Absinthe” (1858-59) was rejected by the jury of the Salon, the realistic theme turned out to be too unusual, the artist was too free to use perspective and half-tones - sacred concepts for the academic school.
But in 1861, two Mane's paintings at once - “Portrait of Parents” and “Guitarro” are exhibited in 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 Court of Paris and Giorgione's Rural Concert. At first, the artist called the painting “Bathing,” but then it became known as “Breakfast on the Grass.” Manet's painting was an event.
The canvas has a rather large size, which suggested the use of a battle or multi-figure biblical plot at that time. And we see a picnic scene of two men and two women, one of which, in the background, bathes in the lake. Men dressed in evening suits are carried away by a conversation among themselves, and as if they do not notice the women who are causing nudity nearby. Her clothes are carelessly thrown onto 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 his "Breakfast on the Grass." Manet's picture is mysterious. The surrounding landscape is painted without perspective and shadows, like scenery in a provincial theater. The bather is clearly not to scale with the surroundings. A bird frozen over sitting like a target in a dash looks like a bullfinch, but a bullfinch in the summer? Obviously there is some kind of story, but the artist does not try to explain it, leaving the viewer to think his own.
The characters of the outrageous picnic had a portrait resemblance to specific people from the artist's entourage: his brother Gustav and brother-in-law Ferdinand Leenhof. The female model also had a name - Quiz Meran, and the specific glory that the frog hinted at in the lower left corner of the picture is a symbol of voluptuousness. The scandal was grand.
Outcast Salon
The 1863 Salon Jury was as strict as ever. Manet's paintings were rejected. Of the five thousand works submitted, less than half were selected, and the artists complained to the emperor himself. The then reigning Napoleon III personally examined the rejected paintings and did not find much difference with the accepted ones. He recommended an alternative exhibition. Outcast audience was visited by no less than the official.
Manet's picture became a sensation. They admired her, but most of them scolded her, laughed at her, mocked her, there wasn’t only anyone indifferent. This was repeated in 1865 with another Manet masterpiece.
"Olympia"
Again, the master was inspired by a masterpiece of the past. This time it was "Venus Urbinskaya" Titian. Venus Mane has the body of Quiz Meran, far from ancient proportions. It was she who made the visitors of the Salon indignant - faithful spouses and respectable ascetics. I had to put a policeman to protect the canvas from injections of umbrellas and spitting.
Venus began to be called like this: Olympia. Manet’s painting evoked direct associations with contemporaries from the courtesan from Dumas novel “The Lady with the Camellias”. Only those who did not think about moral principles were able to immediately appreciate the master's picturesque mastery, expressive composition, and exquisite palette.
Mans impressionist
Around the artist gradually formed a society of those who will become the personification of the brightest artistic movement in painting - impressionism. Eduard Manet is an artist whose paintings were not exhibited at exhibitions with Degas, Renoir, Cezanne. He considered himself independent of any alliances 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 main thing for an artist becomes the ability to see and express the subtlest nuances in nature and in man.