Paintings

Reclining Nude

Édouard Manet - Inspirer of the Impressionists

Édouard Manet (January 23, 1832 - April 30, 1883) was a French painter whose portrayals of contemporary life had far-reaching influence on the Impressionists and modern artists of the 20th century. Throughout most of his life, Manet's work was bitterly criticized by the art establishment and it was only towards the end of his career that he gained some measure of recognition.

Manet was born in Paris, France into a wealthy, middle class family. His father was an official at the Ministry of Justice who wished to see his son pursue a career in law. Young Edouard had other ideas. A mediocre student, he excelled only in drawing and wanted to pursue a career in art. His father objected so Manet agreed to enroll in the navy as a compromise. However, after failing the entrance exams his father agreed to let him study art under academic French painter Thomas Couture in 1850. In the six years, he studied under Couture, Manet copied works by the Old Masters in the Louvre, traveled to Italy, Germany and the Netherlands, and was particularly influenced by the works of Frans Hals, Diego Velasquez and Goya.

Right from the start of his career, Manet painted subjects from everyday life. In 1859 he made his first submission to the official Salon with The Absinthe Drinker, a daring portrayal of the marginal side of Parisian street life. Needless to say, it was rejected by the Salon. Two years later, he submitted Spanish Guitar Player which was accepted and highly praised by the poet Theophile Gautier. It was to be the last of his paintings to achieve such popular acclaim for many years.

In 1863 Manet married Suzanne Leenhoff, a Dutch piano teacher with whom he had taken piano lessons. The couple married in Holland and had previously had a child born out of wedlock.

Manet was a great believer in the Salon acceptance, but for most of his career, its acceptance eluded him. The Salon jury of 1863 had been especially harsh in its rejections, leading to the establishment of the Salon des Refuses (exhibition of refused works). One of Manet's most important works, Dejeuner sur l'herbe, was exhibited there. The painting shows a female nude picnicking in a park in the company of two fully dressed young men. It attracted a firestorm of criticism; it was considered vulgar, shameless, the work of a radical. But this was the painting that catapulted Manet to fame and was to become one of the most influential paintings of all time. Suddenly Manet was a central figure in the progressive art factions of the day. Younger painters saw him as their role model. Two years later, Olympia, a reclining female nude exhibited at the salon of 1865 caused yet another uproar due to its unorthodox realism. Unable to bear the criticism, Manet traveled briefly to Spain.

Amid all the hostility to Manet's art there were, however, those who championed him publicly. Among them was the young French novelist, Emile Zola, who in 1866 published a newspaper article defending the artist. It was to be a turning point. Soon the group of artists that formed the Impressionists became admirers of his work. Berthe Morisot, whom Manet had met in 1868 while painting at the Louvre, posed for several of Manet's paintings and in 1874 she married Edouard's younger brother Eugene, also a painter.

Édouard Manet also met Claude Monet in 1866, becoming close friends in 1874 after which they painted together out of doors at Argenteuil on the River Seine. Although Monet and the Impressionists did influence Manet's work, mainly his color palette, Manet never considered himself as part of their group and he refused to participate in the Impressionist exhibitions.

Following the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-71 and subsequent Paris Commune Manet set off for the Netherlands in 1872. Influenced by the works of Frans Hals, he painted The Glass of Beer upon his return to Paris in 1873. Exhibited at the Salon of that year, the painting was an instant success.

In 1881 Manet's childhood friend Antonin Proust became Minister of Culture and, under his influence, the French government awarded Manet the Legion of Honor. Manet at last achieved the recognition he so desired. Edouard Manet's last great work, The Bar at the Folies-Bergere, was exhibited at the Salon of 1882. Painted in somber tones, the daring composition eliminates the boundary between the viewer and the subject of the painting.

After having finally achieved critical success, Manet's health began to fail. He developed gangrene in his left leg which had to be amputated. Bedridden and unable to handle oil paints, he began working in pastels. He died in Paris on April 30 1883, eleven days after the amputation and was buried in the cemetery of Passy.

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About the Author

Mark Feldman is President of SegTech, a company devoted to a wonderful Image Segmentation technology called Segmation. Segmation - The Art of Pieceful Imaging

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Would "The three ages of man" by Titian (tiziano vecellio) be considered a reclining nude?

Not really.
The male figure is seated rather than reclining.

An example of a reclining nude by Titian would be;
Venus of Urbino
Year 1538
Type Oil on canvas
Dimensions 119 cm × 165 cm (47 in × 65 in)
Location Uffizi, Florence

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/ba/Tizian_102.jpg/800px-Tizian_102.jpg

Painting the Reclining Nude II

Tags: art, conte, crayon, nude, original

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 18th, 2009 at 1:26 am and is filed under paintings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.