Edouard Manet

My apologies! I am so late in posting today because we have had several days of extreme winter weather (we are not used to that in Arizona!) and I have had no internet connection. Yesterday there was a 2 hour window of access and I was able to get on, but today was another story!

Anyway...Happy Birthday Edouard Manet! Born in 1832 to wealthy parents, Manet was trained in the strict academic tradition under Thomas Couture, French portrait painter. He later rebelled against the rigid Salon’s rules and began to paint the “lower class” or seamier side of life. . He painted with immediacy in extreme light and shadow directly from his models. Finally aligning himself with the Impressionists, Manet abandoned the use of black and turned to lighter color palette and subjects. The painting below shows Manet’s expertise in portraiture as the young woman’s eyes seem to glaze over in boredom in A Bar at the Folies-Bergere. The vague crowd reflected in the mirror behind has been described as seemingly a “daydream”. The light in the painting is expertly handled. This was to be the artist’s last great work. What a shame his talent was never recognized by the Salon in whose tradition he was trained and excelled.