National Gallery of Art :: The Collection :: The Old Musician
  • Overview
  • Inscription
  • Provenance
  • Exhibition History
  • Bibliography

Overview

In a review of the 1846 Salon, poet and critic Charles Baudelaire urged artists to depict "the heroism of modern life." Manet embodied Baudelaire's ideal painter of contemporary Paris. Emperor Napoleon III ordered the renovation of Paris under the direction of Baron Haussmann, and early in the 1860s the slum where Manet located his studio was being razed to accommodate the planned broad, tree–lined boulevards that still characterize the city. In this painting, Manet represented a strolling musician flanked by a gypsy girl and infant, an acrobat, an urchin, a drunkard, and a ragpicker—individuals the artist might have observed near his studio. The seemingly casual gathering is composed of the urban poor, possibly dispossessed by Haussmann’s projects. Neither anecdotal nor sentimental, Manet’s portrayal carries the careful neutrality of an unbiased onlooker, and this distinctly modern ambiguity and detachment are characteristic of all Manet's work.

By placing pigments side by side rather than blending tones, Manet could preserve the immediacy and directness of preliminary oil studies in his finished works. Effects produced by this technique were sharper and crisper than those obtained using academic methods. When they first encountered Manet's work early in the 1860s, Monet and Renoir admired his manner of painting and emulated it as they forged the style known as impressionism.

Inscription

lower right: ed. Manet 1862

Marks and Labels

null

Provenance

(Manet sale, Paris, 4 February 1884, no. 9, withdrawn). Camentron, Paris; possibly from whom purchased 1897 by (Durand-Ruel, New York and Paris), until at least 1904.[1] Alexandre Berthier, 4th Prince de Wagram [1883-1918], Paris, by 1906. P.R. Pearson, Paris, by 1912. (Galerie Arnot, Vienna); purchased 1913 by Österreichische Staatsgalerie (now Österreichische Galerie Belvedere), Vienna; released 1923 in exchange for two other paintings, possibly to (Galérie Barbazanges, Paris);[2] (Hodebert, Paris).[3] Acquired 1930 in Germany by (Galerie Étienne Bignou, Paris) for (Alex Reid & Lefèvre, London);[4] sold 1930 to Chester Dale [1883-1962], New York; bequest 1963 to NGA.

[1] In 1904 Durand-Ruel lent the painting to an exhibition in Dublin organized by the collector Hugh Lane (1875-1915), who established that city's Municipal Gallery of Modern Art in 1908. Sarah Herring, Assistant Curator of 19th Century Paintings, National Gallery, London, first brought the 1904 exhibition to the NGA's attention (letter to Philip Conisbee, 11 February 2002, in NGA curatorial files). Dr. Philip McEvansoneya, Head of the Department of the History of Art and Architecture at Trinity College, Dublin, kindly provided references to reviews of the exhibition, and suggested that Lane may have considered purchasing the painting, as the collector did buy several other works lent by Durand-Ruel (e-mail, 8 June 2006, and letter, 20 July 2006, in NGA curatorial files).

[2] In several publications during the 20th century (1919, 1925, and 1960), the painting is referred to as being owned by the "Musée de Vienne, Autriche" and "the Vienna Gallery." An inquiry to the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna was made in 2007, but no records concerning the painting were found. However, Karl Schütz, director of the KHM, suggested the painting had probably been instead at the Belvedere Museum, previously called the Österreichische Galerie; see e-mail from Elke Oberthaler of the KHM, 31 August 2007, in NGA curatorial files. This was confirmed by Monika Mayer, of the Österreichische Galerie Belvedere, who kindly provided details of the 1923 transaction (see her e-mail, 12 December 2007, in NGA curatorial files). The two paintings for which the Manet was exchanged were Marietta by Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot and Badende by Auguste Renoir.

[3] Hodebert was the successor to the Galerie Barbarzanges, which had been located on the property of fashion designer Paul Poiret. Poiret went bankrupt in early 1923 and lost the property; it is likely that the gallery changed hands at that time.

[4] Correspondence between Bignou and Reid & Lefèvre dated April-September 1930 (Lefèvre archives, Hyman Kreitman Research Centre, Tate Britain, TGA 2002/11, Box 218). The painting was possibly acquired through the Galerie Matthiesen in Berlin, where it was exhibited in 1928.

Exhibition History

1863
Galerie Martinet, Paris, 1863, no. 136.
1867
Tableaux de Edouard Manet, Avenue de l'Alma, Paris, 1867, no. 10.
1884
Exposition Manet, Ecole des Beaux Arts, Paris, 1884, no. 16.
1898
Exhibition of International Art, The International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers, London, 1898, no. 55, as Vagabond Musicians.
1904
Catalogue of Pictures Presented to the City of Dublin to form the nucleus of a Gallery of Modern Art; also Pictures Lent by the Executors of the late Mr. J. Staats Forbes, and Others, Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin, 1904, no. 51, as The Itinerant Musician.
1905
Derde Tentoonstelling van Schilderijen, E.J. van Wisselingh & Co., held at Pulchri Studio, The Hague, 1905, no. 87, as Le musucien ambulant.
1905
Pictures by Boudin, Cézanne, Degas, Manet, Monet, Morisot, Pissarro, Renoir, Sisley, Grafton Galleries, London, 1905, no. 100.
1905
Salon d'Automne, Paris, 1905, no. 5.
1912
Exposition centennale de l'art français. Saint Petersbourg, 1912, no. 401.
1927
A Century of French Painting, exhibition organized by Alex Reid & Lefevre and held at McLellan Galleries, Glasgow, 1927, no. 18, repro.
1928
Cent ans de peinture française, E.J. van Wisselingh & Co., Amsterdam, 1928, no. 42.
1928
Edouard Manet 1832-1883, Galerie Matthiesen, Berlin, 1928, no. 8.
1930
Ausstellung von Meisterwerken Deutscher und Französischer Malerei des 19. Jahrhunderts, Kunstverein für die Rheinland und Westfalen, Düsseldorf, January/February 1930, no. 46
1930
Cent ans de peinture française, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 1930, no. 15, repro.
1932
Exposition Manet, Musée de l'Orangerie, Paris, 1932, no. 10.
1965
The Chester Dale Bequest, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1965, unnumbered checklist.
1980
Picasso: The Saltimbanques, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1980, no. 10, fig. 6.
1982
Manet and Modern Paris, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1982-1983, no. 67, repro.
2010
From Impressionism to Modernism: The Chester Dale Collection, National Gallery of Art, January 2010-January 2012, unnumbered catalogue, repro.

Bibliography

1909
Saint-Croix, Camille de. Edouard Manet, Portraits d'Hier. Paris, 1909 [reprinted in T. A. Gronberg, "Manet: A Retrospective," as "A Collegian and Manet," New York, 1990, p. 137].
1924
Severini, Gino. Manet. Rome, 1924: repro. 3.
1938
Pemberton, Murdock. "Ambassador to Art." Esquire (February 1938): repro.
1941
Catalogue of French Paintings from the Chester Dale Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1941: 9, repro. pl. XVI
1941
"The Chester Dale Pictures on loan to the National Gallery of Art."Magazine of Art 34 no. 9 (November 1941): 476+, repro.
1942
French Paintings from the Chester Dale Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 32, repro.
1944
Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds., Masterpieces of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1944: 160, color repro.
1944
French Paintings from the Chester Dale Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1944: 32, repro.
1944
Jewell, Edward Alden. French Impressionists and their Contemporaries Represented in American Collections. New York, 1944: repro. 60.
1953
French Paintings from the Chester Dale Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1953: 42, repro.
1957
Shapley, Fern Rusk. Comparisons in Art: A Companion to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. London, 1957 (reprinted 1959): pl. 110
1960
The National Gallery of Art and Its Collections. Foreword by Perry B. Cott and notes by Otto Stelzer. National Gallery of Art, Washington (undated, 1960s): 23, repro.
1963
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 254, repro.
1965
Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Paintings & Sculpture of the French School in the Chester Dale Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 70, repro.
1965
Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 82
1966
Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds., A Pageant of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. 2 vols. New York, 1966: 2:422, color repro.
1968
European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1968: 71, repro.
1969
La Coste-Messelière, M.-G. de. "Un jeune prince amateur d'impressionnistes et chauffeur." L'Oeil 179 (November 1969): repro. 19.
1974
Rewald, John. "Jours sombres de l'impressionnisme." L'Oeil no. 223 (February 1974): 17, repro.
1975
European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 212, repro.
1977
Hanson, Anne Coffin. Manet and the Modern Tradition. New Haven and London, 1977:36,55-57,61-67,114,120,134,169,198,202, repro.11
1978
Brown, Marilyn R. "Manet's Old Musician: Portrait of a Gypsy and Naturalist Allegory." Studies in the History of Art 8 (1978): 77-87, repro.
1978
King, Marian. Adventures in Art: National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1978: 84, pl. 50.
1979
Watson, Ross. National Gallery of Art. London, 1979: 111, pl. 97, color repro.
1982
Ross, Novelene. Manet's 'Bar at the Folies-Bergère' and the Myths of Popular Illustration. Ann Arbor, 1982:30, 91
1984
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 446, no. 646, color repro.
1985
Athill, Philip. "The International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers." Burlington Magazine 127, no. 982 (January 1985): 25
1985
European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 245, repro.
1991
Kopper, Philip. America's National Gallery of Art: A Gift to the Nation. New York, 1991: 239,247, color repro.
1992
Carr-Gomm, Sarah. Manet. London, 1992: 50.
1992
National Gallery of Art, Washington. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 185, repro.
1996
Körner, Hans. Edouard Manet: Dandy, Flaneur, Maler. Munich, 1996: 54-55, 227, color fig. 41.
1997
Kelder, Diane. The Great Book of French Impressionism, 1997, no. 76, repro.
2004
Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 363-364, no. 298, color repro.
2009
Jones, Kimberly, and Ann Hoenigswald. "Shedding New Light on The Old Musician." Bulletin / National Gallery of Art, no. 41 (Fall 2009): 2-6, 8-13, figs. 1, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11.

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