At the culmination of Christie’s 250th anniversary year and as a major highlight of Classic Week, The Monarch of the Glen (circa 1849–51, estimate on request) by Sir Edwin Henry Landseer, R.A. (1802-73) will lead the Old Master Evening Sale (8 December 2016), alongside important works by Francisco de Goya y Lucientes, Bernardo Bellotto and Edward Lear. The auction will mark the fourth occasion that The Monarch of the Glen has commanded Christie’s saleroom, having last been offered precisely a century ago, in 1916.
The painting is one of the most celebrated works of British art and an icon of 19th-Century European painting. The Monarch of the Glen was originally commissioned in 1849 for the Refreshment Room in the House of Lords. It presents a majestic portrait of a stag posed before a Scottish mountain landscape, monarch of all he surveys, and is realised with Landseer’s complete knowledge of anatomy and texture. The work will be exhibited at Christie’s New York (4-15 November 2016) and Hong Kong (24-28 November 2016), before being on view in London (2-8 December 2016) during Classic Week.
John Stainton, Deputy Chairman of Christie’s Old Master and British Paintings Department: “Following this year’s record-breaking Old Master sales which include Rubens’s ‘Lot and his Daughters’ and, via private treaty, two Rembrandt Portraits and the iconic ‘Armada Portrait’, there is perhaps no more fitting a conclusion to our 250th anniversary than the return of Sir Edwin Landseer’s ‘The Monarch of the Glen’ to Christie’s King Street. The sales in 1884 and 1892, prompted Landseer to become known as the ‘king of the salerooms’ and in 2016 Landseer’s masterpiece will lead Christie’s December Classic Week.”
SIR EDWIN HENRY LANDSEER, R.A. (LONDON, 1802-73)
The Monarch of the Glen was originally commissioned in 1849 as one of three works planned for the Refreshment Room in the House of Lords and was exhibited at the Royal Academy summer exhibition of 1851. The work was purchased from the artist by the sportsman Lord Londesborough for 350 guineas, it was then offered at Christie’s on three occasions; first by his widow, Lady Otho Fitzgerald, in 1884 for 6,200 guineas; then again in 1892 for 6,900 guineas, with other notable works by the artist that had been acquired by H.W. Eaton, Lord Cheylesmore; and lastly exactly one century ago, in 1916, when it was bought by Sir Thomas Dewar, of John Dewar & Sons, one of Scotland's largest whisky companies.
Inspired by his visit to Sir Walter Scott at Abbotsford in 1924, Landseer spent much time hunting and shooting in Scotland, where he was a popular guest of his wealthy patrons and the royal family. Landseer began painting narrative scenes, vivid landscape sketches, and deer subjects for which he would become famous. His artistic vision was carefully considered, reflecting his exhilaration and deep connection with nature, as well as his romantic notion of life and sport in the Highlands. In The Monarch of the Glen, Landseer elevates animal painting to high art, creating a grandiose canvas celebrating the splendour of both the stag and the landscape it inhabits.
OLD MASTER HIGHLIGHTS
Clementine Sinclair, Head of Christie’s Old Master Evening Sale: “The Old Master Evening Sale brings together a remarkable array of works from some of the most sought-after artists in the European tradition. From Jordaens and Bellotto to Goya and Landseer, the exceptional line-up offers global collectors a number of important works, many of which have outstanding provenance and are presented for sale for the first time in several generations.”
Further notable highlights of the Old Master Evening Sale include the sketch by Francisco de Goya y Lucientes (1746-1828) of A Woman with two Boys by a fountain (estimate: £4,000,000-6,000,000) from the Thyssen-Bornemisza collection. This beautifully-preserved work is closely associated with the most important Spanish Royal commission of its time when, following his appointment as Painter to the King in June 1786, Goya was commissioned to produce large painted cartoons for tapestries to decorate the dining room of the heir to the throne, Carlos, Prince of Asturias, in El Pardo Palace, Madrid. Carlos III had requested designs of light-hearted subjects and a principal theme of the Four Seasons was agreed. The full-scale cartoons are all preserved in the Prado, Madrid, while the smaller sketches for these designs are dispersed in major international museums including, the Museo Lazaro Galdiano, Madrid; the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown; the Art Institute of Chicago; and the Prado, Madrid. This sketch and only one other from the series of six principal designs
(Spring, or The Flower Seller) remain in private hands. The rapid brushwork, luminous palette and numerous pentimenti in this sketch are remarkably well preserved, revealing Goya’s evolving design for the final cartoon. In the end, as a consequence of the death of Carlos III the following year, the tapestries woven from Goya’s designs were never hung in El Pardo and the sketches remained in Goya’s possession. This sketch was acquired from the artist in 1798 by the Duke and Duchess of Osuna.
Following the landmark sale of Sir Peter Paul Rubens’s Lot and his Daughters for £44.9 million earlier this year, this season Christie’s will present a work by another celebrated Northern Baroque artist, Jacob Jordaens (1593-1678), who succeeded Rubens as the leading painter in Antwerp following the latter’s death in 1640.
The Holy Family with an angel (circa 1625-6, estimate: £500,000–800,000) is an important and intimate early work by the artist, and a subject that Jordaens frequently returned to throughout his career. This painting was completed at a time when Jordaens produced some of his finest work, including the monumental Saint Peter Finding Money in the Mouth of a Fish (Copenhagen, Statens Museum for Kunst), and it was these works which established his reputation. The composition is articulated with expressive gestures and glances. Christ’s fate is made explicit by the rosary clasped in His hand and the grapes held by the angel as a symbol of the Eucharist. Jordaens may have used portraits of his son, Jordaens the Younger, and wife, Catharina, for the figures of Christ and the Virgin in this picture. His use of realistic models, the rustic presentation of religious subjects and his dramatic use of light and shade point to Caravaggio’s influence.
Bernardo Bellotto (1721-80) will be represented in the sale with The courtyard of the Fortress of Königstein with the Magdalenenburg (circa 1760; estimate: £2,000,000–3,000,000), an impressive and rare view of the Saxon castle, once in the collection of the Counts Potocki, Lańcut Castle, Poland.
Having established himself as an artist of the highest order, being paid more than any previous Court Painter, Bellotto was called to Dresden in 1747. Here he began to work on his renowned series of views of the city for Augustus III, Elector of Saxony and King of Poland (1696-1763), along with full-scale replicas for the chief minister, Graf Heinrich von Brühl (1700-63). The Elector also commissioned five views of his castle at Königstein, which were never delivered to Augustus III and were later dispersed. This painting depends on a picture from the original series, which is now in Manchester City Art Gallery. Bellotto remained in Dresden until 1758, when he travelled to Vienna and Munich, before returning to Dresden in 1761. His celebrated renderings of the major capitals of Northern Europe, including Dresden, Vienna, Munich and Warsaw, hold an important place in European topographical painting.
The sale also includes a spirited en plein air sketch of Beaching a Boat, Brighton (estimate: £500,000 – 800,000) by John Constable, R.A. (1776-1837), which was used in the preparation for
one of the artist’s famed ‘Six-Footers’ showing Chain Pier, Brighton, exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1827 (London, Tate Britain). The sketch was kept in the artist’s studio until his death in 1837 when it passed to his daughter Isabel, before being offered for sale at Christie’s in 1892. It later formed part of the distinguished Chéramy and Hatvany collections, when it was heralded as anticipating Impressionism in its truth to nature and in the spontaneity of its brushwork.
Edward Lear’s (1812-88) monumental The Forest of Bavella (circa 1878-88; estimate: £600,000-800,000) is also among the highlights. The work is the largest of only three known oil paintings that he executed of the forests of Southern Corsica following his expedition to the island during the winter of 1867-68. It illustrates Lear’s unparalleled skill at capturing a sense of grandeur and an epic depth of scale, with soaring pines, and cavernous ravine set against a mountainous backdrop. Using a combination of vivid, quickly-applied brushstrokes with carefully delineated details, Lear demonstrates his supremacy as a topographical draughtsman.
At the core of this winter’s sale is a
group of ten paintings of impressive
quality from the collection formed by
Sir William Forbes, the 7th Baronet of
Pitsligo (1773–1828), a Scottish banker
who gave much of his fortune to
various charitable establishments in
Edinburgh. All of the works in the sale
were acquired in Italy by the art dealer
James Irvine on Forbes’ behalf between
May 1827 and November 1828 and
have never appeared on the market
since then.
Leading this group is a Portrait of two boys, said to be members of the Pesaro familypainted by Titian
(1485/90 - 1576) with some assistance from his studio, probably in the early 1540s. This striking work is a
rarity in the genre of portraiture for it is one of the first and very few double portraits in Renaissance
painting. Its originality also lies in its intensely expressive representation of childhood, rarely seen in Titian’s
oeuvre which only comprises a small group of portraits of children. Not until the following century would
something comparable be attempted by Rubens when painting his sons (est. £1 - 1.5 million).
From the same collection is a stunning Portrait of an architect by Lorenzo Lotto (1480-1556), a recently
discovered addition to the artist's œuvre and one of some forty-odd surviving portraits, nearly all of which
are now in public collections. Lotto’s portraits are among the most inventive and expressive of the first half
of the 16th century and often break with conventions in portraiture. Probably painted in the 1540s, this work
is remarkable for the sparseness of its composition, as well as the pose and expression of the sitter who
engages directly with the viewer (est. £200,000-300,000).
TWO MAGNIFICENT ITALIAN GOLD-GROUNDS
The sale is further distinguished by a fine selection of early Italian
Renaissance paintings, and most notably two magnificent 15th-
century Italian gold-grounds which have been in the collection
formed by the famous German painter Franz von Lenbach (1836-
1904) for over a century. Both works beautifully exemplify the
artistic production in two of the principal cities in Tuscany in the
late Middle Ages and Early Renaissance.
The first is one of the most arresting gabella panels ever
created. Gabelle are inextricably linked to the history of Siena
which was already a fully-functioning democracy in the 15th
century. These small painted panels, produced between the mid-
13th century and the last quarter of the 17th century, served as file
covers for the officials leaving office after their six-month fixed
term in the Republic (when they had to make all their paperwork
public as an anti-corruption requirement). These files and their
covers were then hung on the city walls so that the population
might have access to
them.
A work of considerable rarity, this Flagellation was made in 1441
by the Master of the Osservanza, now recognised as Sano di Pietro
(1405–1481), one of the most prominent Sienese artists of the first
half of the 15th century. Today, most Gabelle covers are in Siena,
and a handful are scattered among museums. With its highly
inventive design, the present work is therefore one of the very few
and most stunning Gabella panels still in private hands outside Italy
(est. £400,000-600,000).
The other major gold-ground in the sale is a luminous work by Bicci
di Lorenzo, one of the most important painters of early 15th-
century Florence. Painted in the early 1430s, thisNativity is a fine
example of Bicci's distinctly traditionalist style that ensured a long-
lasting demand for his paintings (est. £300,000-500,000).
DUTCH AND FLEMISH MASTERWORKS FROM THE "GOLDEN AGE"
Following the auction record set for a still life by Jan Brueghel the
Elder in London in July
Still Life of flowers in a stoneware vase, the sale will feature a magnificent flower
painting by another pioneer in the genre, Ambrosius Bosschaert the
Elder. Bosschaert was wholly responsible for the sudden outburst of
flower painting in the Netherlands at the start of the 17th century
and this beautifully preserved Still life of tulips, wild roses,
cyclamen, yellow ranunculus, forget-me-not and other flowers, in a
glass beaker is a very fine example of his early works. Dating from
circa 1608–1610, it is little known, having only been exhibited once,
in 1970, and only ever published in the catalogue of that exhibition
(est. £800,000-1,200,000).
The sale will also provide a fascinating insight into the extraordinary
impact that the work of Pieter Bruegel the Elder (c. 1525-1569) had
upon Netherlandish landscape and genre painting in his own
century, and equally how his influence was still being felt in the
following century, as witnessed by the work of his son Pieter
Brueghel the Younger (1564-1637/8) and his contemporaries,
including Maerten van Cleve (c. 1527-1581).
The highlight of this section is one of the finest known versions of Pieter Brueghel the Younger’s Return
from the Kermesse, a composition that enjoyed great popularity during the artist’s lifetime and which
appears to have been entirely of his own design. Its beautiful state of preservation allows us to fully
appreciate the superb draughtsmanship, understanding of gesture, colour, composition and story-telling that
have ensured for Brueghel a lasting reputation (est. £2-3 million). Previous sale.
There has been no exhibition
exclusively devoted toManet in France since 1983, the date of the memorable
retrospective produced by Françoise Cachin and Charles S. Moffett. In the
ensuing twenty-five years, however, there has been much valuable research and
fruitful reflection. A rejection of formalism and a return to history, personal
as well as collective, characterise the best of this work, whether documenting
Manet’s life story or analysing his work, how it was exhibited and received.
Our understanding of French painting from the period 1840 to 1880 has at the same
time become more refined and freed from over-Manicheistic interpretations. From
these two developments, in which the musée d'Orsay continues to be involved, a
new image of Manet and his generation has appeared.
This exhibition aims to
demonstrate this in a most clear and attractive way. More than just a strictly
linear, monographic retrospective, it constructs its premise around some nine
questions, each one closely related to the historical process from which Manet
cannot be separated.
Simplifying his modernity to an iconographic register or
bringing it down to a few stylistic elements comes, as we know, from a
reductive approach. Manet is modern primarily because he embraces, as much as
Courbet yet differently, the changes in the media that marked his era, and the
unregulated circulation of images; secondly because imperial France, the
backdrop to his developing career, was modern. And finally because the manner
in which he challenged the masters of the Louvre was modern, extending beyond his
militant Hispanism.
It is clear that the aesthetic he forged after 1860 demands
a broader definition of realism than is normally ascribed to him. With this
objective in mind, the exhibition aims to revisit the many links, visual,
literary or political, between Manet’s art and Romantic culture. It will focus
on the teaching of Thomas Couture, Baudelaire’s support and encouragement, the
reform of religious art, erotic imageryand its unresolved issues, etc. But the
originality of an artist as unpredictable as Manet cannot bereduced to the sum of the sources from which he distils his
art.
Other sections of the exhibition try to throw light on the art of the
fragment(ed), his relationship with women painters (Berthe Morisot, Eva
Gonzalès), his decision to remain outside the main Impressionist movement and
his complicity with Mallarmé at his darkest.
The final reminder of the
exhibition at the Galleryde la Vie Moderne, the last one-man show, in 1880, of
a painter obsessed by the Salon, raises the question of what “the freedom to
create” meant to him. This means that “Manet, the Man who Invented Modernity”
highlights later works that areless well known and, more importantly, little understood
if regarded as simply a stage in the process towards “pure painting”.
Curator:
Stéphane Guégan, curator, musée d'Orsay
Sections: - The Couture School - The
Baudelaire Moment - On the Future of Christian Art - From the Prado to the Alma
- “The Promises of a Face” - Impressionism trapped - 1879 - a turning point -
Less is more? - The end of the Story.
There has been no exhibition exclusively devoted to Manet in France since 1983, the date of the memorable retrospective produced by Françoise Cachin and Charles S. Moffett. In the ensuing thirty years, however, there has been much valuable research and useful comment. We can no longer consider the painter’s “modernity” without a comprehensive approach that takes into account the diversity of his work, the versatility in his career and his active relationship with his own times. The “man of the world” that Zola praised in 1867, was “a painter inthe world”. The poetic and the political, in every sense that this republican gave these words, go hand in hand.
In a way, theexhibition came about through one painting,
Homage to Delacroix, that Fantin-Latour, one year after the great artist’s death, showed at the Salon in 1864.
In it, we can see Manet in good company, standing between Champfleury and Baudelaire. On the one hand, Courbet’s man; on the other, Delacroix’s champion: Manet was the troublemaker who brought Realism and Romanticism together and confused the issue. Fantin-Latour’s hypothesis onlyneeded some support.
This is what the nine sections of this exhibition propose to do by rescuing Manet from the unsound judgment of later generations. The reputed father of “Impressionism” or of “pure painting” is now an outdated idea. Manet’s dazzling success after 1860, his continued evolution until 1883, from militant Hispanism to unorthodox Naturalism, his determination to revolutionise history painting in the public space where it was meaningful, these perspectives are more relevant to the inventor of the “Modern”.
Manet was modern in the way he captured the life of his time in life-size images, brought the arsenal of the old masters up to date and exploited the resources of an era that profoundly redefined the distribution and commercial availability of images. A regular exhibitor at the Salon, no matter what, the Delacroix of “new painting” would have only one enemy, the old established concepts of form and the trivialisation of the senses.
In order to emphasise his radical approach even more, Manet’s first supporters cut him off from his roots. According to them, therefore, he would not have learnt anything or retained anything from his six years (late 1849 to early 1856) with Thomas Couture, the painter of Romans of the Decadence. Having failed to get into the Naval College in Brest, the young Manet nonetheless enrolled with enthusiasm in this prominent studio. Couture was then regarded asthe heir to Veronese and Rubens, as well as to Ribera and Géricault, and furthermore, was Academic... This friend of Michelet was also an official artist of the Second Republic. When Manet joined him, Couture was striving to complete an enormous patriotic scene,
The Enrollment of the Volunteers of 1792. The realistic vitality of this painting enlivened the student’s studies even more. Manet also appreciated the all-encompassing sincerity of the portraitist. Of course, it was not just Couture. The copies of Delacroix and his Boy with a Sword revealed other ambitions.
Manet and Baudelaire met around 1860. And a “strongaffinity” brought them together until the death of the author of theFlowers of Evil. Since his first articles on the Salon, Baudelaire had been trying to convert Romanticism into Modernity - he would be for the visual arts what Balzac had been for thenovel. It matters little in the end that Baudelaire never openly acknowledged Manet as “the painter of modern life”, the expression he applied to the illustrator ConstantinGuys. When Victorine Meurent suddenly appeared in his pictures, as a singer fallen on hard times or a shameless bather, Manet, the creator of Luncheon on the Grass found a way of painting in the present moment, of combining this new prosaicism ofsubject with the spontaneity of photography and the depth of classical painting. Animaginative world, and even a certain style of drawing, finally linked poet and painter. From Spanish dancers and the doomed woman to queens of the night, the continuity speaks for itself, and would stay with “the painter of the black cat” for a longtime.
In 1864, a year after the Salon des Refusés, there was another, more metaphysical shock : Manet exhibited his Dead Christ with Angels, and shook up the traditional practices of l'Art Saint-Sulpice,the art of the Catholic Church. He took his inspiration from Italy (Fra Angelico, Andrea del Sarto) and Spain (El Greco, Velazquez, Goya), following the example of Legros, a precocious rival. Baudelaire, a Catholic himself, as were they, supported their efforts in the more controlled genre of the female nude. In 1859, when speaking of Delacroix, the poet had written : “religion, being the highest fictionof the human spirit [...], requires the most vigorous imagination and the greatest effort from those who devote themselves tothe expression of its actions and its sentiments”. Manet, a friend of Abbot Hurel, took up this challenge : to reinvent, not revive, sacred art. Although not a pillar of the church, the painter of Olympiawas nonetheless respectful of the inviolable rights of individual faith and the teaching of the gospels. The 20thcentury would in the end find this religious phasesuspect, and would forget it ...
After the failure at the 1865 Salon of
Jesus mocked by Soldiers and of Olympia, Manet went to Spain for the first
time. His main aim was to see Velazquez’s paintings at the Prado. His direct
encounter with the master sof the Golden Age, including El Greco and Goya, not
to mention the wealth of Italian artists in Madrid, would affect him in a
number of ways. In 1866, when
The Fife Player was rejected by the Salon jury,
Zola noted the astonishing blend of sobriety and energy emanating from the
paintings that Manet had produced on his return from Spain. With its harshness
and dramatic tension, Dead Matador reached new heights. It is a fragment of a
bullfighting scene that Manet had cut up in 1865. This was not an isolated
case. Whether it was dissatisfaction or a desire to intensify the visual power
of the paintings, this was a clever choice in view of the continual criticism
from the press. Instead of producing ever more skilful compositions, Manet
fragmented, telescoped and stimulated perception. His horse racing scenes
acquired an unprecedented spirit and vitality.
Baudelaire
commented on the interplay of desire and frustration running through the series
of portraits of Berthe Morisot that started at the 1869 Salon with The Balcony.
The model, a young woman who did not fit well into her upper class background,
also a painter and future active member of the “Impressionist group”, spoke
highly of this painting which reminded her of Guys and Goya : “His paintings, as
always, create the impression of wild fruit, slightly unripe even. I really
like them.” The Balcony is disturbing, as much for its suspension in space
and colour contrasts as for the mystery and obstinate silence of the protagonists
who ignore each other, looking outwards, disillusioned and fatalistic.
Alongside Berthe Morisot, who sits like a fashion-plate model trapped in her
own melancholy, Manet represented the violinist Fanny Claus and landscape
artist Antoine Guillemet. Until 1874, when she married one of his brothers, the
painter flirted with using different moods and settings to transform her image –
an indication of how his art could make the illusory boundary between reality
and fiction unstable and therefore visible.
In
May 1874, Manet distanced himself from the first exhibition of the
Impressionists, according to a comment by one scornful critic. Some, such as
Degas, deplored this and spoke of desertion. The press was astonished. The
painter of Luncheon on the Grass, the supposed champion of plein air painting,
was considered their “leader”. The fact remains that Manet’s artistic idiom had
moved on after the end of the Franco-Prussian war and the Commune, two events
that closely affected him. He lightened his palette and his style became more
vibrant. It would be wrong to put this down purely to the influence of his
friends Monet and Renoir. This chromatic and formal liberation had revealed
itself in the mid 1860s in his seascapes, his most sober, and closest to
Whistler. Rather than adopting the emerging aesthetic, Manet adapted it for his
own purposes, for which the Salon remained the ideal place. During those years,
Mallarmé, who like Manet was a frequent visitor to Nina de Callias’ salon, came
into his social circle and his art. Two illustrated books, somewhere between
fantasy and the fantastic, sealed a friendship that only death would end.
The change of
direction was initially political after the election of Jules Grévy. The
atmosphere of the Salon altered too. These new circumstances accelerated
Manet’s development, in form and content. At Père Lathuille’s, which delighted
Huysmans at the 1880 Salon, Manet avoided the rather obvious moralising of Zola
whose novels he very much enjoyed. However he had never aspired to judge
contemporary morals from above. But he did, however, cultivate a relationship
with the friends of the publisher Charpentier, whose success had given him the
financial means to launch La Vie Moderne, both an illustrated review and a
gallery open to the new painting of Renoir, Monet and Manet himself. In April
1880, Manet exhibited around twenty paintings and pastels. As well as being a
summary, it was, as the Portrait of Constantin Guys indicates, a kind of
small-scale manifesto. The numerous scenes of brasseries and music halls
impressed his contemporaries, as did the fashionably dressed society women and
demi-mondaines: Manet revealed himself here “in a completely new light - a
painter of elegant women” (Philippe Burty).
Although quite numerous, a fifth of his entire oeuvre, Manet
did not consider his still lifes in the way we do today, in thrall to an absurd
relativism that scarcely gives Olympia any more importance than the artist’s
first idealised piece of asparagus. In truth, he would have reacted furiously
at our indifference to the categories that governed his work: primacy of the
senses, impact on the imagination and the compositional imperative.
His best
still lifes held a modest position in this hierarchy. Their raison d'être was
first and foremost a practical one: while his figures did not sell, he
increased the images of flowers, fruits and “set tables”. More than just
decorative virtuosity, a direct homage to the old masters or the delightful intrusion
of the accidental, it is their dramatic quality that saves them from banality.
Around 1880, he started to use closer framing and smaller canvases. When
stripped down to the minimum, with a flash of brightness on the rich impasted
surface, small, insignificant things, which amused the painter, attained an
unprecedented expansiveness.
Manet was always a
history painter, a “universal” painter, from ambition and from a desire to
record the political situation of the time. The first work he presented under his
own name, in 1860, was a caricature of Émile Ollivier, published in Diogenes, a
liberal, anti-clerical journal run by Ernest Adam. This friend of the Manet
family, a young lawyer and republican parliamentary deputy, reminds us that
they and their friends opposed the Second Empire. That Édouard then painted
several controversial paintings, including the
Édouard ManetLa
bataille du S.S. Kearsarge et du C.S.S. Alabama,
1864
Huile
sur toile, 134 x 127 cmPhiladelphia,
Museum of Art
The
Execution of Maximilian, came as no surprise. When the Radicals came to power
in 1879, it gave him a final boost. Decorative projects and portraits confirmed
his commitment. The establishment of 14 July as France’s national day and the
amnesty for the Communards prompted him to pay tribute to a "red", which
was echoed in December 1880 by Monet’s comment: “I saw Manet, in good enough health,
very much taken up with a sensational painting for the Salon - Rochefort
escaping in a rowing boat on the open sea.” (Monet). Destined for the Salon,
the unfinished canvas was both his
Barque of Dante (Eugene Delacroix)
and his Raft of the Medusa (Théodore Géricault).
Chronology
of Édouard Manet
Extract
from the exhibition album, The Danger of Manet, by Stéphane Guégan, Musée d'Orsay
/ Gallimard
1832
23 January, Édouard Manet is born in Paris into an affluent middle class
family. His father, Auguste, is a high-ranking official in the Ministryof
Justice; his mother, Eugénie-Désirée, also wealthy, a goddaughter of the King
of Sweden (Bernadotte), is the daughter of a diplomat. Two brothers are born
after him, Eugène (1833)
and Gustave (1835).
1844-1848
After studying at the Poiloup Institute in Vaugirard, he enters the Collège
Rollin (nowadays the Lycée Jacques-Decour), where he meets Antonin Proust (
1832-1905).
Manet’s maternal uncle, Édouard Fournier, apparently takes him to visit the
Musée du Louvre for the first time.
1848
22-25 February : revolutionary days. Proclamation of the Second Republic.
1848-1849
Rather than study law, Manet, chooses to go into the navy. However he fails the
entrance exam for the Naval Academy. In December
1848,
just before the election of Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte as first president of the
French Republic, he sets sail on a training vessel heading for Rio de Janeiro.
During the voyage, he produces drawings and caricatures. On his return, he
fails once more to be accepted into the Naval Academy. His parents allow him to
take up a career in art.
1850
Manet joins the studio of Thomas Couture (1815-1879),
in rue Laval. He stays there for almost six years. Suzanne Leenhof (1830-1906),
his brothers’ piano teacher, becomes his mistress.
1851
2 December : coup d’etat by Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte. Manet seems to have
already demonstrated his opposition to the “gravedigger of the Republic”.
1852
29 January : Suzanne Leenhoff gives birth to an illegitimate son, Léon-Édouard
Koëlla, called Leenhoff (1852-1927).
Is he the painter’s son or half-brother? The question remains open. 2 December:
proclamation of the Second Empire. Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte becomes Napoleon
III.
1852-1853
Manet makes a number of trips. He travels to Holland, Germany, Austria and
Italy. In Venice and Florence he becomes friendly with Émile Ollivier (1825-1913),
a young Republican lawyer whose father has been exiled. Copies the masters.
1855
Gustave Courbet sets up his Pavilion of Realism outside the Universal
Exhibition.
1856
After leaving Couture, Manet moves into a studio inrue Lavoisier with the
painter Albert de Balleroy (1828-1872).
1857-1859
Another trip to Italy. Manet meets Henri Fantin-Latour (1836-1904)
and Degas (1834-1917).
1861
Manet moves into his studio in rue Guyot, in the vicinity of the Plaine
Monceau. At the Salon he shows Portrait of Mr. and Mrs M[anet]and The Spanish
Singer, which earns him an “honourable” mention. Starts exhibiting at the
Martinet Gallery, 26 boulevard des Italiens.
1862
Manet exhibits some prints in Alfred Cadart’s gallery, 66 rue de Richelieu. Is
one of the founder members of the Société des Aquafortistes (Society of
Etchers) that aims to revive etching. First articles by Charles Baudelaire in
which he mentions his friend Manet.
1863
March : exhibits fourteen paintings at the MartinetGallery, including Boy with
a Sword, The Street Singer, The Gypsies and Lola de Valence, a work that includes
a quatrain by Baudelaire. May : opening of the Salon des Refusés. Luncheon on
the Grass [Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe], arouses the indignation of the critics
with very few exceptions. August: Manet attends Delacroix’s funeral with
Baudelaire. October: Manetmarries Suzanne Leenhoff.
1864
Fantin-Latour exhibits Homage to Delacroix at the Salon, with Manet in the
centre. Manet himself exhibits The Angels at Christ’s Tomb (Dead Christ with
Angels) and Episode from a Bullfight, the bottom part of which would become The
Dead Man (The Dead Matador) after it was cut up. Moves to 34 boulevard des
Batignolles. Paints The Battle of the ‘Kearsarge’ and the ‘Alabama’.During the
summer makes his first visit to Boulogne-sur-Mer.
1865
At the Salon, Manet exhibits Olympia andJesus mocked by the Soldiers, which
cause a scandal. Stays in Madrid for the summer. The Velazquez paintings in the
Prado have a huge impact on him.
1866
The Fife Playerand The Tragic Actor are refused by the Salon. Émile Zola (
1840-1902)
defends the painter with unusual vehemence. Manet moves to 49, rue de
Saint-Pétersbourg. Frequents the Café Guerbois, in what is now the avenue de
Clichy, a meeting place for writers and artists. Meets Paul Cézanne (1839-1906)and
Claude Monet (1840-1926).
1867
Aiming to take advantage of the Universal Exhibition, Manet has a pavilion
built near the Pont de l’Alma, where he displays fifty of his paintings and
prints. As part of a collective strategy, Fantin-Latour exhibits his portrait
of Manet, and Zola publishes a vitriolic brochure. However, there are few
positive responses. September: Manet attends Baudelaire’s funeral. 29
1868
Exhibits his Portrait of Émile Zolaat the Salon. The writer dedicates his novel
Madeleine Férat to Manet. Manet meets Berthe Morisot (1841-1895)
and her sister, as well as Léon Gambetta (1838-1882).
1869
January-February : Manet is informed that he cannot exhibit The Execution of
Maximilian or publish the lithograph taken from it. Zola denounces these two
acts of censorship in the press. The Balcony,first appearance of his friend
Berthe Morisot, andLunch in the Studio are presented at the Salon.
1870
May : exhibits the portrait of his pupil Éva Gonzalès at the Salon. 4
September: after the defeat at Sedan and the fallof Napoleon III, the Third
Republic is proclaimed. The Prussians are at the gates of Paris. The siege
begins. Manet joins the National Guard. After two months he leaves the artillery
to join the general staff.
1871
January-February : ceasefire and preliminary negotiations for a catastrophic
peace treaty resulting in a severe war indemnity for France, andthe loss of
Alsace and Lorraine. Manet rejoins his family in Oloron-Sainte-Marie in the Pyrénées.
March-May: The Paris Commune. Manet returns just after the “Bloody Week” (21-28
May). He would later create a permanent reminder of the event.
1872
Durand-Ruel buys twenty-four of Manet’s paintings. Manet once again exhibits The
Battle of the ‘Kearsarge’ and the ‘Alabama’.Visits Holland (Haarlem and
Amsterdam). The painter moves into his new studio at 4, rue de Saint-Pétersbourg,
near the railway. He frequents the Café de La Nouvelle-Athènes, place Pigalle,
along with Degas, Renoir, Monet and Pissarro.
1873
Exhibits Le Bon Bock, a patriotic allegory, at the Salon. At the home of Nina
de Callias, he meets Stéphane Mallarmé (
1842-
1898),
with whom he would develop a long friendship.
1874
The Salon jury only accepts The Railwayand the watercolour Polichinelle, a
caricature of Mac-Mahon. They refuse The Swallows and Masked Ball at the Opera.
Mallarmé responds to the insult in an article in La Renaissance Artistique et
Littéraire. First ‘Impressionist’ exhibition, in which Manet chooses not to
participate. During the summer he visits Monet, and does several portraits of
him.
1875
Exhibits Argenteuilat the Salon. He arouses the anger of the press who label
him the leader of the Impressionist school in a derisive and provocative
gesture. Manet illustrates Stéphane Mallarmé’s French translation of Edgar
Allen Poe’s The Raven.Travels to Venice in October with his wife Suzanne and
James Tissot (
1836-1902).
1876
In April, after his paintings are refused at the Salon, Manet displays his
works in his studio. Another retaliatory article by Mallarmé, whose poemL’Après-midi
d’un fauneManet had just illustrated.While staying with Ernest Hoschedé in the
summer, Manet paints a large portrait of Carolus-Duran.30 Édouard Manet J-B Faure
dans le rôle d'Hamlet,
1877
Yet another affront: only Faure as Hamlet is accepted at the Salon. As Nanais
refused, it is displayed in the window of the art dealer Giroux, in the
boulevard des Capucines. Huge success and very enthusiastic article by
Huysmans.
1879
New studio at 77, rue d’Amsterdam, enormous, luxurious and much frequented.
Exhibits Boating and In the Greenhouse at the Salon. Critical reception to his
work is improving. Manet, suffering from locomotor ataxia, a conditionassociated
with syphilis, leaves for a rest cure in Bellevue, near Meudon.
1880
Private exhibition in the galleries of La Vie Modernein April. A real critical
success. Exhibits Portrait of Mr.Antonin Proustand At Père Lathuille’s, at the
Salon. Manet’s health deteriorates. Another cure at Bellevue, where he paints
the portrait of the singer Émilie Ambre who had organised the exhibition ofThe
Execution of Maximilianin New York and Boston at the end of 1879.
1881
Exhibits Portrait of Mr.Pertuiset andPortrait of Henri Rochefortat the Salon,
where he is awarded a second-class medal. In early summer, the artist leaves to
convalesce in Versailles. November-December: Antonin Proust is appointed Minister
of Fine Arts, and Manet is made a Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur.
1882
Exhibits Jeanneand A Bar at the Folies-Bergèreat the Salon. September: as his
state of health is deteriorating,Manet draws up his will, appointing Suzanne as
his sole legatee and Léon as his heir, after the death of his mother.
1883
Exhibits at the École des Beaux-arts in Paris, Lyon, New York and Boston. After
having his left leg amputated, Manet dies on 30 April. He is buried in the
cemetery in Passy.
List of works
Section
1.The choice of couture
Henri
Fantin Latour
Hommage
à Delacroix,
1864, huile sur toile, 160 x 250 cm
Paris,
musée d'Orsay
Édouard
Manet
La
Barque de Dante,
d'après Delacroix, 1854, huile sur toile , 38,1 x
48
cm, Lyon, Musée des Beaux Arts de Lyon
Édouard
Manet
,
La
Barque de Dante
,
vers 1859, huile sur toile, 33 x 41 cm
New
York, Metropolitan Museum of Art
Édouard
Manet
,
Le
Petit Lange
,
1861-62, huile sur toile, 115 x 72 cm
Karlsruhe,
Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe
Édouard
Manet
,
Le
Jeune garçon à l'épée
,
1861, huile sur toile, 131.1 x 93.4 cm
New
York, Metropolitan Museum of Art
Thomas
Couture
,
Portrait
de Henri Didier
,
1843, huile sur toile, 202 x 117 cm,
Compiègne,
Musée Antoine Vivenel
Thomas
Couture
,
Portrait
de Henri Didier (tête)
,
1844, huile sur toile
Marseille,
Musée des Beaux Arts
Thomas
Couture
,
Portrait
de Henri Didier (tête)
,
1844, crayon noir, 33 x 27 cm
Paris,
Collection Prat
Thomas
Couture
,
Portrait
d'Amédée Berger
,
1852, huile sur toile, 55 x 46 cm
Rouen
, Musée des Beaux Arts
Thomas
Couture
,
Prince
S. T.
,
1852, huile sur toile, 52 x 43 cm
Bordeaux,
Musée des Beaux Arts
Édouard
Manet
,
Portrait
d'homme
,
1855-56, huile sur toile, 56 x 47 cm
Prague,
National Gallery
Édouard
Manet
,
Portrait
de Roudier
,
vers 1860-1863, sanguine, 19,7 x 15,7 cm
Paris,
musée d'Orsay
Édouard
Manet
,
Portrait
de Roudier
,
1860, huile sur toile, 61,4 x 50,4 cm
Otterlo,
Kröller Müller Museum
Thomas
Couture
,
Esquisse
pour L'Enrôlement des volontaires de 1792
,
1848
huile
sur toile, 21 x 37 cm, Beauvais, Musée départ
emental
de l'Oise
33
Thomas
Couture
,
Deux
volontaires : le noble et l'ouvrier
,
1848, huile sur bois, 100,5
x
83 cm, Beauvais, Musée départemental de l'Oise
Thomas
Couture
,
Cavalier
au cheval cabré
,
entre 1815 et 1879, huile sur toile, 84 x
75
cm, Beauvais, Musée départemental de l'Oise
Thomas
Couture
,
Homme
vu de dos
,
entre 1815 et 1879, huile sur toile, 81 x 75 cm,
Beauvais,
Musée départemental de l'Oise
Édouard
Manet
,
Tête
d'homme étendu,
mine
de plomb, 21,7 x 26,9 cm
Paris,
musée d'Orsay
Thomas
Couture
,
Étude
en pied pour Mme Bruat
,
1856, huile sur toile, 65 x 81 cm
Compiègne,
Musée national du château de Compiègne
Édouard
Manet
,
Main
gauche avec deux alliances,
crayon
et craie blanche, 18,2 x
26,9
cm, Paris, musée d'Orsay
Édouard
Manet
,
Guerrier
tenant une lance,
mine
de plomb, aquarelle, 28,9 x 21,1
cm,
Paris, musée d'Orsay
Édouard
Manet
,
Figure
debout
,
drapée,
tenant glaive,
mine
de plomb, 28,9 x 21,1
cm,
Paris, musée d'Orsay
Édouard
Manet
,
Figure
debout, drapée portant deux vases
,
vers 1852-1858,
sanguine,
29,8 x 21,9 cm, Paris, Musée d'Orsay
Édouard
Manet
,
Homme
debout, drapé
,
vers 1852-1857, sanguine, 28,9 x 21,9 cm
Paris,
musée d'Orsay
Édouard
Manet
,
Chrysippos
,
vers 1862, sanguine, 22,8 x 14,2 cm
Paris,
musée d'Orsay
Édouard
Manet
,
Deux
personnages debout, en pied, dont l'un drapé,
non
daté
sanguine
et pierre noire, 28,9 x 21,1 cm, Paris Mus
ée
d'Orsay
Édouard
Manet
,
Monsieur
et Madame Auguste Manet
(Portrait
des parents de
Manet),
1860, huile sur toile, 110 x 90 cm, Paris,
musée
d'Orsay
Édouard
Manet
,
Portrait
du père de l'artiste
,
eau-forte
Paris,
Bibliothèque Nationale de France
Édouard
Manet
,
Portrait
des parents de Manet
,
1859-1860, sanguine, 31 x 25 cm
Paris,
musée d'Orsay
Édouard
Manet
,
Portrait
du Tintoret par lui-même
,
1854, huile sur toile, 64 x 50 cm
Dijon,
Musée des Beaux Arts de Dijon
Section
3. A suspect catholicism ?
Édouard
Manet
,
Silentium
,
2e état (état définitif), Planche n°10 de l'album
.jpg)
.jpg)
