The shocking Le Dejeuner sur l'Herbe (1863) drew the most criticism for a number of reasons. Manet and others protested and the Emperor relented by putting all of the rejected works into the secondary Salon des Refusés, so the public could see what had been deemed unworthy. Manet was the focus of several of these controversies and the Salon of 1863 refused his paintings. This was a tumultuous artistic shift that pitted the status quo of the Salon with avant-garde artists who suffered mightily at the hands of the conservative public and vicious critics. He met Edgar Degas and Henri Fantin-Latour - both would become important lifelong friendships.įriends with poet Charles Baudelaire and artist Gustave Courbet, Manet moved amongst other progressive thinkers who believed that art should represent modern life, not history or mythology. His financial security also enabled him to travel through Holland, Germany, and Austria, and to visit Italy on several occasions. Becoming a flâneur of Parisian life and translating his observations onto his canvases came naturally for Manet. His ability to set up his own space (although it was a joint endeavor with painter Albert de Balleroy) was entirely due to his financial security, which also enabled him to live his life and create art in his signature fashion. He trained under Couture for six years, finally leaving in 1856 and starting his own studio in the rue Lavoisier. While Couture was an academic painter, and a product of the Salon system, he encouraged his students to explore their own artistic expression, rather than directly adhere to the aesthetic demands of the days. In January 1850, true to his contrary nature, instead of going to the École des Beaux-Arts to learn what he considered outdated modes, Manet joined Thomas Couture's studio. Reluctantly, his father allowed Manet to pursue his artistic goals. The following year, Manet traveled to Italy, both for the art and for social distraction. This affair resulted in a boy born in 1852, Leon, who was passed off to Suzanne's family and, to avoid scandal (from Manet's aristocratic family), was introduced to society as Suzanne's younger brother and Manet's godson. In 1849, Manet had an affair with his family's piano teacher, Suzanne Leenhoff. Today, critics see this quality as the first example of "flatness" in modern art. In the artist's day, this flatness may have suggested popular posters or the artifice of painting - as opposed to its realism.
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