Édouard Manet

Biography

Édouard Manet (1832–1883) was a Paris-born painter who catalyzed modern art through frank treatments of contemporary life and a radical pictorial language. Though distinct from the Impressionist exhibitions, he shared their subjects and optical immediacy; A Bar at the Folies-Bergère, shown at the 1882 Salon, is widely regarded as his last major work [2][6].

Themes in Their Work

The modern lens: urban life & speedClass distinction & status displayMimesis vs. abstraction (truth vs. artifice)Everyday life as art (the ordinary)The pastoral/ArcadiaLasting vs. fleeting (ephemerality)Medium reflexivity (art about art)Colonial encounter & empireThe gaze & being looked atCapital, commodity, and consumptionSpectacle & commodity fetishismThe double/doppelgängerGender as performanceSexuality & desireRace & representationDomestic labor & invisible workOriginality, authorship, and appropriationPublic space vs. private spaceIndustrial sublime

Featured Artworks

A Bar at the Folies-Bergère by Édouard Manet

A Bar at the Folies-Bergère

Édouard Manet (1882)

Édouard Manet’s A Bar at the Folies-Bergère stages a face-to-face encounter with modern Paris, where <strong>commerce</strong>, <strong>spectacle</strong>, and <strong>alienation</strong> converge. A composed barmaid fronts a marble counter loaded with branded bottles, flowers, and a brimming bowl of oranges, while a disjunctive <strong>mirror</strong> unravels stable viewing and certainty <sup>[1]</sup><sup>[2]</sup>.

Luncheon on the Grass by Édouard Manet

Luncheon on the Grass

Édouard Manet (1863)

Luncheon on the Grass stages a confrontation between <strong>modern Parisian leisure</strong> and <strong>classical precedent</strong>. A nude woman meets our gaze beside two clothed men, while a distant bather and an overturned picnic puncture naturalistic illusion. Manet’s scale and flat, studio-like light convert a park picnic into a manifesto of <strong>modern painting</strong> <sup>[1]</sup><sup>[2]</sup>.

The Railway by Édouard Manet

The Railway

Édouard Manet (1873)

Manet’s The Railway is a charged tableau of <strong>modern life</strong>: a composed woman confronts us while a child, bright in <strong>white and blue</strong>, peers through the iron fence toward a cloud of <strong>steam</strong>. The image turns a casual pause at the Gare Saint‑Lazare into a meditation on <strong>spectatorship, separation, and change</strong> <sup>[1]</sup><sup>[3]</sup>.

Olympia by Édouard Manet

Olympia

Édouard Manet (1863 (Salon 1865))

A defiantly contemporary nude confronts the viewer with a steady gaze and a guarded pose, framed by crisp light and luxury trappings. In Olympia, <strong>Édouard Manet</strong> strips myth from the female nude to expose the <strong>modern economy of desire</strong>, power, and looking <sup>[1]</sup><sup>[3]</sup>.