Edouard Manet 1832-1883 the First of the Moderns

Criticised during his lifetime for both his style and his subject matter, the Frenchman édouard Manet (1832-1883) is now considered a crucial figure in the history of art: the painter who made the transition from Realism to Impressionism possible.

In his work, Manet combined great pictorial technique with strikingly modern images of contemporary life, centred on urban Paris.

He portrayed the city's parks, bars and cabarets, often taking a provocative and clandestine turn, with the Paris Salon rejecting his Lunch on the Grass, in which fully clothed men appear next to a naked woman. And the brazen pose of a prostitute with an unchanging gaze, Olympia, a modern version of Titian's Venus of Urbino, scandalised the society of the time.

Packed with illustrations, this book presents Manet's work and reveals the unique way in which the painter combined Realism and Impressionism, also reinterpreting the old masters, in a style that would become a paradigm for the modernist generations to come.

• Pages: 96
• Language: English
• Author: Gilles Néret
• Year: 2016
• MODEL: 9783836535106

Publisher: Taschen