« Manet, the man who invented Modern Art»
Musée d’Orsay
From April 5th to July 3rd 2011
The exhibition is extended until the 17th of July
Until the 3rd of July, the Musée d’Orsay goes back over Edouard Manet’s record. This audacious painter strived to introduce the modern world into painting by reveling in great masters tradition, even if it meant giving rise to polemics. Among the 400 works left by the painter and spread around the world, the Musée d’Orsay managed to gather together 140 works among whose 84 paintings, pastels, watercolors, drawings and about thirty artworks of his contemporaries.
The dead torero, 1864-1865 Oil on canvas Washington, The National Gallery of Art
© Widener Collection, Image courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington
The retrospective is divided in twelve fundamental questions about the master’s work. It takes us in the twists and turns of Manet’s creative spirit. You will discover the essential role of Thomas Couture in his learning of painting, the impulsion of Baudelaire, the power of his erotic imagination that is obvious, the way he dealt with Impressionism, the importance of Spanish painting, his relation with the poet Mallarmé.
Despite the scandal caused by the presentation of « Déjeuner sur l’herbe » in 1863, Manet the ambitious will never stop presenting his works to the Salon no regards for critics, seeking a recognition that he will obtain at the end of his life.
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Horsewoman, 1882 Oil on canvas, 74 x 52 cm Madrid, Fondation Thyssen-Bornemisza
© Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
«Manet, inventeur du moderne »
Until July 3rd 2011 (extended until the 17th of July)
Musée d’Orsay
1, rue de la Légion d’Honneur
75007 Paris