These are the 12 most famous paintings by Édouard Manet.
Édouard Manet (1832–1883) was a French painter and printmaker specializing in depicting daily life and metropolitan scenes. As one of the first nineteenth-century artists to study modern-day topics, he was a prominent figure in the transition from realism to impressionism.
Biography of Édouard Manet
Manet managed to convince his father that he was neither suited for public service nor for an officer’s commission in the navy, the two professions his father hoped he would consider in preference to painting. Thus, as a youth of 18, Manet entered the studio of Thomas Couture, an academic painter, with whom he stayed for a period of six years. Before the classicism of his master, Édouard Manet realized with full force his own lack of interest in the mid-tone gradations of Couture’s painting, intended to render the plasticity of his attentively studied subjects.
Contrasted with Couture’s academic style, the insurgent style of the Impressionists could hardly be described more clearly. Where the classicist attempted to achieve the gradient of perfectly rendered shapes, Manet sought to catch a glimpse of a moment by means of color contrasts and patches of flat paint.
Where the traditional painter naturally required layering of color on top of a dark background and an indefinite progression of touches and brushstrokes, the Impressionist painters capture their scenery (their preferred subject matter) en plein air, by applying color directly to the canvas.
Édouard Manet’s first practical studies in painting indeed followed the Realist model (see The Absinthe Drinker of 1859). At the same time, however, he is experimenting with his quick brushstroke technique by copying Delacroix’s Barque of Dante first in an imitative, Realist style, then in an already recognizable Impressionist version. Besides the contemporary Realists, Manet is studying the work of Velázquez (see Music in the Tuileries of 1862 for an example), while observing the great colorists, Titian, Tintoretto, and Rembrandt on his tours to the European capitals. All throughout his career, Manet would give signs of the artistic knowledge that he possessed.
Édouard Manet’s Impressionist project
In the decade of Impressionism — in between the improvised salon of 1874 and the eighth and last exhibit of 1886 — Édouard Manet became friends, for at least a short while, with all the contributors of the movement: Degas, Monet, Renoir, Sisley, Cézanne, Morisot, and Pissarro. His acquaintance with Zola and Delacroix has been mentioned, but Manet also enjoyed the intellectual support of the poets Mallarmé and Baudelaire. (They, like Zola, saw in the Impressionist scandal an instance of bourgeois society reacting against a faithful depiction of itself.) The Impressionist group would, due to a multitude of ideological divergences, exist only very loosely from 1880 onwards. Indeed Manet’s funeral in 1883, at which only Renoir was absent, would be the last known occasion on which the group of artists could be found together.
The great scientific development ushered into art by the Impressionists is the knowledge of the most recent scientific theories on the propagation of light and the human perception of colour which were being formulated as the photographic medium was beginning to become available to the artists as well as the researchers. Complementary to the selfsame need for snapshot perceptions, it is important to signal the appearance of commercial oil colors in tubes.
These enabled the Impressionists to carry their colors to any location and to proceed with painting at once.
The movement was also receptive to the knowledge of Japanese prints, and multicolor productions on wood, the arrival of which in mid-19th-century Europe was due to the intensifying commerce with the Far East. The unusual perspective in Édouard Manet’s Boating of 1874, where the entire background is occupied by the body of water on which the boat is sitting, is a direct descendant of Utagawa Kunisada’s diagonal perspectives. It is also an instance of photographic perspective in Manet, with the ‘objective’ at a higher plane than the two subjects.
For the majority of his artistic life — which produced over five hundred paintings on media other than paper — Manet, like most of the Impressionist cohort, sought to portray contemporary social life as it could be gleaned in the open air and the cafés. Impressionism was in that respect a genuine continuation of the Realist project. “One must belong to one’s time and do what one sees”, Manet would say, in defense of his popularly misunderstood poetics.
In this connection, it ought to be said that Édouard Manet neither sought nor expected scandal. He believed in the truthfulness of his art and, in opposition to some of his Impressionist friends, always hoped to be able to earn a place at the official Salon, which he struggled to do all his life. In 1856, as he was beginning to overcome the transitional tonalities of Realism, he opened his own studio. That atelier would constitute his ordinary base of operations.
War paintings and politics – Édouard Manet’s influence
Interestingly, Manet displayed also an interest for depicting contemporary events and especially military happenings. He painted the flagships of the naval Battle of Cherbourg of the American Civil War, which he may have witnessed off the coast of Normandy. More ideologically significant are Manet’s several versions of The Execution of Emperor Maximilian (1867-1869), portraying the death by firing squad of the Austrian emperor of Mexico installed to uphold French dominion over the country.
The paintings could not be legally displayed or reproduced during Manet’s lifetime. They depicted a spectacular failure of French imperialism in the Americas on the eve of the insurrection by the Paris Commune. The bar from publication did not surprise Manet, who was also aware that the execution squad’s uniform could resemble the French in the final version of the painting and that the sergeant depicted with a red cap could resemble Emperor Napoleon III. As a depiction of the formalized violence enabled by war, Manet’s endeavor naturally anticipates the famous executions of Goya.
Although listed by his friends as the supporter of the Paris Commune (May 1871), Édouard Manet was not in Paris during the insurrection and the repression by the military. He was ostensibly unimpressed with the communards as much as with the parliamentary leadership of the Third Republic. He nonetheless gave personal support to the leftist cause in the events of May 1877, when popular support for the centrality of parliament defeated the monarchical prerogatives of the presidency.
Famous Eduard Manet Paintings
The Luncheon on the Grass (1863)
Luncheon on the Grass, or Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe in his native French, is not only one of the most famous paintings by Édouard Manet, but it is also one of the all-time great works, in art history.
This is a painting of a naked woman surrounded by fully dressed males at the Salon des Refusés. It was considered an embarrassment at the time, not only because of the woman’s nakedness in comparison to the males but also because Manet used recognizable models for the figures in the painting.
The painting was particularly unusual in that it had a particular limitation in flatness.
Olympia (1863)
Olympia is a painting of a naked woman in a leisure position with a servant delivering flowers. It’s regarded as one of the most scandalous famous paintings by Édouard Manet, because of Manet’s rethinking of the classic topic of female nudity and his technical execution.
The criticisms of Olympia had less to do with the model’s nakedness and more to do with the subject matter’s reality. The painting’s subject was very likely a prostitute.
Music in the Tuileries (1862)
This is a painting of fashionable, well-to-do Parisians smiling, mingling, and listening to music in the Tuileries Gardens, which are located between the Louvre and the Place de la Concorde in Paris.
It’s a significant piece of art that sheds light on the historical setting of Paris and contributed to the development of the Impressionist movement in the painting, which prioritizes color over overdrawing.
Berthe Morisot with a Bouquet of Violets (1872)
This is a painting of a fellow painter, Berthe Morisot, clothed in a black mourning gown with a scarcely visible bouquet of violets.
The painting is also known as “Portrait of Berthe Morisot,” “Bertha Morisot in a Black Hat,” or “Young Woman in a Black Hat.” Manet painted the painter with black eyes, despite the fact that her eyes were green.
Berthe Morisot would marry Édouard Manet’s brother, Eugène Manet, two years after this painting was complete.
The Café-Concert (1878)
This is a painting of men and women at Paris’s new brasseries and cafés, giving the viewer a different perspective on new Parisian life. It shows Paris’s conflicting socioeconomic classes.
Cafés were the places to go for contemporary discussion and socializing. In one place, both men and women, poor and rich, were interacting and enjoying the same entertainment.
The Races at Longchamp (1864)
This is a painting of the racetrack in the Bois de Boulogne, in the western suburbs of Paris.
It depicts the final seconds of a race, as the horses gallop over the finish line, which is marked by the pole with a round top. Unlike previous athletic artists, who usually showed races from the side, Manet was able to create a scene in which the throng of horses and jockeys thundered directly toward the observer.
Boating (1874)
Manet’s Boating is a painting of a man (perhaps Manet’s brother-in-law, Rodolphe Leenhoff) and an unknown lady rowing on the Seine River at Argenteuil, in the Paris suburbs. There is extensive use of sharp angles, with the angle of the black ribbon on the lady’s hat matching the angle of the rope that is attached to the sail. The overall perspective of the painting is extremely interesting, with a strong focus on the two-dimensional plane.
The Execution of Emperor Maximilian (1867)
This is a painting of Emperor Maximilian I of the short-lived Second Mexican Empire being executed by firing squad. It represents a real occurrence with political importance. This is one of the rare artworks in which Manet attempts to achieve a dramatic impact, which highlights the climax of a well-known historical event.
The Railway (1873)
This is one of the famous paintings by Édouard Manet, depicting a vivid and attractive image of a woman with a small child looking directly with pleasure at the newly built railway lines in Paris.
The Railway is commonly referred to as the “Gare Saint-Lazare.” Contrasts are used throughout the artwork to neutralize and flatten the composition.
A Bar at the Folies-Bergère (1882)
This is a painting of a scene from the Folies Bergère nightclub in Paris. It’s often regarded as Manet’s final significant achievement and is considered to be one of the most famous paintings by Édouard Manet.
In its realistic representation of a modern setting, A Bar at the Folies-Bergère illustrates his commitment to realism. It’s full of details that reveal information about the artist’s social status and surroundings.
Completed a year before his death and at a time of his deteriorating health, A Bar at the Folies-Bergére, a Parisian nightclub, is Édouard Manet’s last great painting.
As a dynamic snapshot of real social life, a depiction of still life, and a deployment of barely shaded flat colours, the painting summates the artistic pursuits and the style of Édouard Manet. The multitude of critical analyses has brought about the realisation that the scene reflected through the giant glass behind the barmaid was correctly portrayed by the artist, with only an apparent inconsistency in the male figure on the right. In typical fashion, Manet’s primary human subject looks in the direction of the spectator, who thus enjoys the impression of personal presence in the convivial scene.
The quick Impressionist strokes have accomplished a vision of liveliness which most clearly manifests at a certain, perspectively natural, distance. By feeling themselves into the sociable scene, the spectators have the synesthetic impression of hearing the burble of a crowd that they observe in front but are hearing from the back, as well as the waft of cigarette smoke emanating from the stalls.
The Surprised Nymph (1861)
This is a painting of Suzanne Leenhof, Manet’s future wife, who is featured as the nymph. The Surprised Nymph is known by its French name, “La Nymphe Surprise.” Manet believed it was highly respected, so much so that he held it in his own private collection until his death in 1883.
Young Flautist (1866)
Young Flautist a painting of a young regimental fifer playing a flout while dressed in the Imperial Guard attire of Spain. It’s also known as “Le Fifre” in French.
This figure is developed using a limited color palette and harsh tones, such as deep black shoes and jackets. The painting was inspired by Manet’s visit to Spain in 1865.