THE BULLFIGHT · EDOUARD MANET
CHAPTER III · EDOUARD MANET (1832-1883)
“CE QUI ME FRAPPE D’ABORD DANS CES TABLEAUX, C’EST UNE JUSTESSE TRÈS DÉLICATE DANS LES RAPPORTS DES TOUS ENTRE EUX.
“TOUTE LA PERSONNALITÉ DE L’ARTISTE CONSISTE DANS LA MANIÈRE DONT SON ŒIL EST ORGANISÉ: IL VOIT BLOND, ET IL VOIT PAR MASSES”
ZOLA
FOR over twenty years the technique and methods of Edouard Manet were a subject for the most virulent debate. His art, in fact, became the scene of a battle in which every painter in Europe had a hand. Officialdom found no place for him in its heart, no matter whether the State was Imperial or Republican. The Empress Eugénie once asked that his pictures might be removed from public exhibition; President Grévy demurred when the artist’s name was placed on the list for the Legion of Honour. Clearly this man was no supporter of the established order of things. Refused recognition as an artist by the school of tradition, disowned by his own teacher, a source of hilarity to the public, Edouard Manet caught but a glimpse of the long-wished-for land of success which he was fated never to enjoy fully.
The battle is not quite finished, and the rout of the old school continues to the present day. One result remains. Manet has had a greater influence upon the art of the last forty years than any other master during that period, and the standard which he raised has become a rallying-point for the greatest painters of the present age.
Edouard Manet was born in Paris on January 23, 1832, at No. 5, Rue des Petits Augustins. Thirty-six years previously Corot was born round the corner, in the Rue du Bac. To-day the Rue des Petits Augustins is a long street running through the Latin Quarter, southwards from the Seine and the Louvre, known as the Rue Bonaparte. It has become the chief mart for commerce in artists’ materials, photographs, pictures, and all the odds and ends which fill up a studio. With a quaint appropriateness, the birthplace of Manet faces the École Nationale des Beaux-Arts.