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Victoria Burrows

Also known as: The Father of Impressionism

Life: January 23, 1832 - April 30, 1883

Country: France

Medium: Painter and printmaker

Style:  Impressionist

Background

Manet came from a wealthy family, and his father hoped he would follow in his footsteps and become a judge. But Manet wasn't interested in studies.

When he first started painting, Manet's style wasn't particularly Impressionist, but his  works inspired a group of young artists who later became the Impressionists. He is generally grouped with the Impressionists, but, in some ways, he could be called the Father of Impressionism.

One of the primary Impressionists, Claude Monet, who will feature in next week's column, was so impressed with Manet's Luncheon (above), he painted his own version.

Manet challenged art in two main ways: what he painted and how he painted.

His subject matter

Manet lived in a time of social change. The Industrial Revolution was gathering steam and Paris, where he lived, was being modernised. Manet wanted to paint what was happening at the time instead of what artists had been painting for centuries.

Luncheon was one of Manet's first paintings to be seen by the public and it caused a scandal. He painted two naked women and two fully-clothed men having a picnic in the park.  The nudity   didn't bother   art critics - there is a long history of naked people, nymphs and goddesses in paintings. But to paint the men in modern clothes meant that his painting wasn't depicting a religious or celebrated  theme as paintings were expected to do.  Manet wasn't a provocative man, but his painting shocked society. He made people question what art should be about and what its purpose is.

His style

Many people called Manet's paintings ugly. He didn't try to make what he painted look real - he sometimes left dark outlines, and objects or people looked flat, lifeless, blurred or patchy. In The Fifer (left), the boy's hands have dark outlines and his face looks pale. The painting looks unfinished.

Also,  he didn't paint an attractive background - just a flat, dull setting    reminiscent of a photographer's studio. Manet did not pretend that his painting represented real life; he made the viewer aware that this was paint on a canvas and that the boy in the painting was posing for an artist. This was a new and unsettling thing for people to see in a painting.

Manet's art may seem tame to us now, but at the time, it provoked one art critic to describe the painter as 'a French idiot ... who must be the greatest  ass who ever lived'.



Edouard Manet