50 Fun Facts About Edouard Manet

Which two early Manet paintings, shown in 1863 and 1865, caused the great scandals?

They are called watershed paintings marking the start of modern art.

Which career did Manet's father originally intend for him?

He sailed to Rio on a training vessel in 1848 and failed the Navy exam twice.

Under which academic painter did Manet study from 1850 to 1856?

Couture was later horrified by pupils' 'degenerate' subjects like The Absinthe Drinker.

Which two Spanish masters and one Dutchman shaped Manet's early style?

He copied Velázquez and Titian in the Louvre and travelled in the 1850s.

At which 1863 alternative exhibition was Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe shown?

Napoleon III set it up after the jury took only 2,217 of 5,000 submissions.

What was the original title of Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe?

One critic said it looked painted with a 'floor mop'; Zola later used it in L'Œuvre.

Which Raimondi engraving after Raphael supplied the poses of the Déjeuner's main figures?

Giorgione's Pastoral Concert and The Tempest are the other cited precedents.

Whose Symphony in White shared the 1863 rejects' limelight with the Déjeuner?

The two works were the most discussed in what became one of the most famous shows ever.

Which Titian painting supplied the pose for Olympia?

Goya's Nude Maja is another echo; the alert black cat replaces Titian's sleeping dog.

Who was the nineteen-year-old model for Olympia?

She also posed for the Déjeuner and The Railway and became a painter herself.

What animal sits alert at the foot of Olympia's bed?

It strikes a rebellious note against the sleeping dog in Titian's Venus of Urbino.

Who organised the 1890 public subscription that gave Olympia to the French state?

It now hangs in the Musée d'Orsay.

Which Paris museum holds both Olympia and Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe?

Olympia was so provocative in 1865 that guards had to stop viewers attacking it.

Which two of Manet's relatives posed for the men in Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe?

The right-hand man blends Eugène and Gustave; the other is Dutch sculptor Ferdinand Leenhoff.

Whom did Manet marry in 1863, a Dutch piano teacher two years his senior?

She had taught the Manet boys piano and may have been his father's mistress.

Who was Léon Leenhoff, the boy in Boy Carrying a Sword and Boy Blowing Bubbles?

He posed eighteen times between 1859 and 1872; his father may have been either Manet.

Which painter became Manet's sister-in-law by marrying his brother Eugène in 1874?

She convinced him to try plein air painting and appears in many of his portraits.

Which Rococo painter was the supposed great-uncle of Manet's sister-in-law Berthe?

Her mother was Fragonard's great-niece; Corot introduced her to plein air.

Who was Manet's only formal student?

She was the daughter of novelist Emmanuel Gonzalès.

What name was given to the circle of painters around Manet and Morisot?

Degas, Monet, Renoir, Sisley, Cézanne and Pissarro were drawn in through Morisot.

Why did Manet refuse to show with the Impressionists?

He also did not want to be seen as the representative of a group identity.

Which poet and which composer appear in the crowd of Music in the Tuileries?

Visitors threatened to destroy it in 1862; Delacroix was one of its few defenders.

Which two cities share Music in the Tuileries under a 1915 bequest?

Hugh Lane went down with the Lusitania in 1915 leaving an unwitnessed codicil.

Which Habsburg ruler's death by Mexican firing squad did Manet paint three times?

Neither the paintings nor the lithograph could be shown in France; they look back to Goya.

Who reassembled the cut-up fragments of Manet's earlier firing-squad painting?

The National Gallery bought the pieces in 1918 and united them on one canvas in 1992.

Which German city's Kunsthalle holds the final 1868–69 Execution painting?

All five versions were shown together in London and Mannheim in 1992–93.

Which American Civil War sea battle off the French coast did Manet paint in 1864?

The Battle of Cherbourg may have been witnessed by the artist himself.

Which Paris station gives its alternative title to The Railway of 1873?

The only evidence of a train is its white cloud of steam behind an iron grating.

Which Washington museum owns The Railway?

Critics in 1874 found its subject baffling and its execution sketchy.

What was Manet's last major work, shown at the 1882 Salon?

Afterwards he limited himself to small formats, mostly flowers in glass vases.

Which London gallery holds Manet's last major work, the 1882 barmaid picture?

It first hung over the piano of composer Emmanuel Chabrier.

Which composer first owned the 1882 barmaid painting, hanging it over his piano?

Chabrier owned 14 Manets and dedicated an Impromptu to the painter's wife.

Who proved in 2000 that the barmaid painting's mirror perspective was possible?

His reconstruction showed the gentleman stands off to the left, not in front of the barmaid.

Which Velázquez masterpiece is the 1882 barmaid painting often compared to for its mirror?

Michel Foucault opened the topic in The Order of Things.

Which honour did Manet receive in 1881 after lobbying by a politician friend?

Proust, his lifelong friend from drawing class, became Minister of Fine Arts.

What was amputated from Manet in April 1883, eleven days before his death?

Gangrene from syphilis and rheumatism; he is buried in Passy Cemetery.

What condition, a side-effect of syphilis, really caused Manet's leg pain and paralysis?

He took hydrotherapy near Meudon believing it was a circulatory problem.

What were the subjects of Manet's last twenty paintings?

He said an artist can say everything with 'flowers, fruit, and clouds'.

Which Poe poem did Manet illustrate in an 1875 French edition translated by Mallarmé?

Mallarmé, Zola and Baudelaire were among his literary champions.

Which Manet painting set his auction record of $65.1 million in 2014?

The Getty bought it; the previous record was his Self-Portrait with Palette at $33.2 million.

Roughly how many oil paintings by Manet are catalogued?

Rouart and Wildenstein's 1975 catalogue also lists 89 pastels and over 400 works on paper.

Which painting technique did Manet make standard, finishing a picture in one sitting?

He rejected Couture's dark ground and layered method for opaque paint on a light ground.

Which Swedish crown prince was Manet's mother's godfather?

The Bernadotte line still reigns in Sweden; Manet's father was a judge.

Which 1861 Salon painting, admired by Gautier, was Manet's first popular success?

Its 'strange new fashion' reportedly made painters' jaws drop.

Which republican politician did Manet admire most, hosting an electoral meeting in 1877?

He opened his studio during the seize mai crisis for a meeting chaired by Gambetta's friend.

In which Pyrenean town did Manet wait out the Paris Commune in 1871?

Friends added his name to the Commune's artists' federation in his absence.

Which 'semimondaine' sat for seven pastel portraits by Manet in the early 1880s?

Her salons hosted French and American writers and painters.

Where was Manet's Execution of the Emperor first exhibited, in December 1879?

Singer Émilie Ambre, whom Manet painted as Carmen, and her lover arranged the show.

Which future Minister of Fine Arts did Manet meet in drawing class in 1845?

He remained a lifelong friend and got him the Légion d'honneur.

Which establishment on boulevard de Rochechouart inspired At the Café (1878)?

His café pictures are called the painted journal of a flâneur.