Masked Ball at the Opera

1873

Edouard Manet

Artist, French, 1832 - 1883

A densely packed crowd of men and women, all of them with pale skin and most of them wearing black, stand in a theater lobby beneath a mezzanine level that runs close to the top edge of the composition in this horizontal painting. Because the crowd spans the width of the composition, the first impression is of a mass of deep black stretching across the canvas. Slowly, individual faces and poses become evident. Five of the women wear black, oval masks that cover their eyes and noses, and one more mask has fallen onto the rust-red floor below. Two women, wearing bright white and colorful clothing, engage some of the men in conversation. A man cropped by the left edge of the painting wears the green, red, and gold costume and pointed cap of a court jester. Two gold and glass wall sconces hang on the cream-colored wall behind the crowd, one near each top corner. The space within the mezzanine level above is painted loosely so details are difficult to make out, but a pair of legs clad in black britches and white stockings seems to stand with ankles crossed at the top center. A leg wearing a red, high-heeled ankle boot dangles outside of the railing to the right. The brushstrokes are loose throughout. The artist’s signature appears on a piece of discarded paper on the floor near the lower right corner: “Manet.”

Media Options

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Manet came from a well–to–do family, and this painting provides a glimpse of the sophisticated Parisian world he loved. He was uncomfortable in the countryside, preferring instead the finery of the city. These elegant men and coquettish young women are attending a masked ball held each year during Lent. "Imagine," ran a description in the newspaper Figaro, "the opera house packed to the rafters, the boxes furnished out with all the pretty showgirls of Paris. . . . " There is little doubt about the risqué nature of the evening, where masked young women, likely respectable ladies concealing their identities, scantily clad members of the Parisian demimonde, and well–dressed young men all mingle together.

Manet sketched the scene on site, but painted it over a period of months in his studio. He posed several of his friends—noted writers, artists, and musicians—and even included himself in the crowded scene. He is probably the bearded blond man at right who looks out toward the viewer. At his feet, a fallen dance card bears the painter's signature.

At the edges of the horizontal painting—a format Manet used often—figures end abruptly. At top, legs dangle over a railing. In contrast to the self–contained compositions of academic art, we are instantly aware that we see only a part of the scene and that it extends beyond the picture frame.

On View

West Building Main Floor, Gallery 89

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Artwork overview

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Jean-Baptiste Faure [1830-1914], by 1873; (Faure sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 29 April 1878, no. 40, bought in); Jean-Baptiste Faure until at least 1884. (Durand-Ruel et Cie, Paris and New York); sold 16 January 1894 to Henry Osborne Havemeyer [1847-1907], New York;[1] by inheritance to his wife, née Louisine Waldron Elder [1855-1929], New York; by inheritance or gift to Mrs. Horace Havemeyer [née Doris Anna Dick, 1890-1982]; gift 1982 to NGA.
[1] Frances Weitzenhoffer, The Creation of the Havemeyer Collection, 1875-1900, Ph.D. diss., The City University of New York, 1982: 225.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1884

  • Exposition Manet, Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1884, no. 69.

1895

  • Exposition of Paintings by Edouard Manet, Durand-Ruel Galleries, New York, 1895, no. 29.

1960

  • Paintings from Private Collections: Summer Loan Exhibition, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1960, no. 62.

1962

  • Paintings from Private Collections: Summer Loan Exhibition, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1962, no. 38.

1982

  • Manet and Modern Paris, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1982-1983, no. 39, repro.

1983

  • Manet, Grand Palais, Paris; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1983, no. 138, repro.

1990

  • Französische Impressionisten und ihre Wegbereiter aus der National Gallery of Art, Washington und dem Cincinnati Art Museum, Neue Pinakothek, Munich, 1990, no. 24, repro.

1993

  • Splendid Legacy: The Havemeyer Collection, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1993, no. 357, pl. 196.

1994

  • Paris in 1874: The Year of Impressionism, National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 1994, no. 79, repro.

1998

  • Manet, Monet, and the Gare Saint-Lazare, Musée d'Orsay, Paris; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1998, no. 26, fig. 140.

2004

  • Faces in the Crowd: Picturing Modern Life from Manet to Today [Volti nella Folla: Immagini della vita moderna da Manet a oggi], Whitechapel Art Gallery, London; Castello di Rivoli, Museo d'Arte Contemporanea, Rivoli-Turin, 2004-2005, unnumbered catalogue, repro.

2010

  • Bilder einer Metropole: Die Impressionisten in Paris (Images of a Capital - The Impressionists in Paris), Museum Folkwang, Essen, 2010-2011, no. 45, repro..

2011

  • Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; The National Art Center, Tokyo; Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art, 2011, no. 26, repro.

2013

  • Manet: ritorno a Venezia, Palazzo Ducale, Venice, 2013, no. 52, repro.

2014

  • French Impressionist Paintings and the Havemeyer Family, Shelburne Museum, Vermont, 2014, no catalogue.

2015

  • Splendeurs et misères. Images de la prostitution, 1850-1910 [Easy Virtue. Prostitution in French Art, 1850-1910], Musée d'Orsay, Paris; Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, 2015-2016, no. 71, repro. (shown only in Paris).

2016

  • Manet: Sehen [Manet: Painting the Gaze], Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg, 2016, no. 54.

Bibliography

1874

  • Mallarmé, Stéphane. "Le jury de peinture pour 1874 et M. Manet." Renaissance artistique et littéraire (12 April 1874): 155-157; published in Stéphane Mallarmé Oeuvres complètes, Paris, 1945: 695-700.

1876

  • Claretie, Jules. L'Art et les artistes française contemporains. Paris, 1876: 259-260.

1902

  • Duret, Théodore. Histoire d'Edouard Manet et de son oeuvre.Paris, 1902: no. 153, repro.

1906

  • Duret, Théodore. Histoire d'Edouard Manet et de son oeuvre. Paris, 1906: 142-145.

1910

  • Duret, Théodore. Manet and the French Impressionists. Translated by J.E. Crawford Flitch. London and Philadelphia, 1910: 68-69, 233, no. 153.

1912

  • Meier-Graefe, Julius. Edouard Manet. Munich, 1912: 212-218, repro.

  • Blanche, Jacques-Emile. Essais et portraits. Paris, 1912: 154-155.

  • Hourticq, Louis, Jean Laran and Georges Le Bas. French Artists of Our Day: Edouard Manet. Philadelphia and London, 1912: 59-60, repro.

1919

  • Blanche-Jacques-Emile. Propos de Peintre: De David à Degas. Paris, 1919: 133.

  • Duret, Théodore. Histoire de Edouard Manet et de son oeuvre. Paris, 1919: 109-115, no. 153.

1926

  • Moreau-Nélaton, Etienne. Manet, raconté par lui-même. 2 vols. Paris, 1926: II: 7-12, 47, 114. repro. fig. 175, no. 69.

1930

  • Tabarant, A. "Les Manet de la Collection Havemeyers." (La Renaissance_ (Feruary 1930_: 72, repro.

1931

  • Catalogue of Paintings, Prints, Sculpture, and Objects of Art, Part II, Paintings and Pastels, Collections of the Havemeyer Family, privately printed for Mrs. H. O. Havemeyer and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1931:404, repro.

  • Tabarant, Adolphe. Manet: histoire catalographique. Paris, 1931: 250, no. 203.

1932

  • Jamot, Paul, and Georges Wildenstein. Manet. 2 vols. Paris, 1932: 1:no. 219, repro.

  • Meier-Graefe, Julius. "The Manet Centenary" Formes XXIV (April 1932): 251-253.

1937

  • Colin, Paul. Manet. Paris, 1937:119.

1939

  • Venturi, Lionello. Les archives de l'impressionnisme. 2 vols. Paris and New York, 1939: II:205

1941

  • Jedlicka, Gotthard. Edouard Manet. Erlenbach and Zurich, 1941: 167-171, repro.

1947

  • Florisoone, Michel. Manet. Monaco, 1947:XIV

  • Tabarant, Adolphe. Manet et ses oeuvres. Paris, 1947: 232-234.

1954

  • Hamilton, George Heard. Manet and His Critics. New Haven, 1954: 175+, repro. 30.

1955

  • Bataille, Georges. Manet. Translated by Austryn Wainhouse and James Emmons. Lausanne, 1955: 95, repro.

1958

  • Richardson, John. Edouard Manet: paintings and drawings. London, 1958: 31.

1959

  • Hemmings, F.W.J. and Robert Niess, eds. Emile Zola: Salons. Geneva, 1959:259.

1960

  • Rouart, Denis. Manet. London, 1960: 60.

1961

  • Havemeyer, Louisine B. Sixteen to Sixty: Memoirs of a Collector. New York, 1961: 218.

1965

  • Sutton, Denys. "The Discerning Eye of Louisine Havemeyer." Apollo 82 (September 1965): 232.

1967

  • Orienti, Sandra. L'opera pittorica di Édouard Manet. Milan, 1967: no. 188, repro.

1968

  • Bodelsen, Merete. "Early Impressionist Sales 1874-94 in the light of some unpublished 'procès-verbaux'." The Burlington Magazine 110 (June 1968): 341.

  • Maur, Karin V. "Edmond de Goncourt et les artistes de la fin du XIXe siècle." Gazette des Beaux-Arts ser. 6, vol. 72 (November 1968): 209-228. repro. fig. 2.

  • Schneider, Pierre. The World of Manet, 1832-1883. New York, 1968: 141, 143.

1970

  • Orienti, Sandra. The Complete Paintings of Manet. London, 1970: no. 188, repro.

1971

  • Becker, George J. and Edith Philips, eds. Paris and the Arts, 1851-1896: From the Goncourt Journal. Ithaca and London, 1971: 133.

1974

  • Callen, Anthea. "Faure and Manet." Gazette des Beaux-Arts 83 (March 1974): 162.

1975

  • Rouart, Denis and Daniel Wildenstein. Edouard Manet, catalogue raisonné 2 vols. Lausanne and Paris, 1975: no.216.

1977

  • Hanson, Anne Coffin. Manet and the Modern Tradition. New Haven and London, 1977:42

1980

  • Kelder, Diane. The Great Book of French Impressionism. New York, 1980:116-118, repro.

  • De Leiris, Alain. "Manet and El Greco: 'The Opera Ball.'" Arts Magazine LV (September 1980): 95-99, repro.

1981

  • Orienti, Sandra. Edouard Manet Werkverzeichnis. Frankfurt am Main, c. 1981: no. 166a.

1982

  • Weitzenhoffer, Frances. "The Creation of the Havemeyer Collection, 1875-1900." Ph.D. dissertation, The City University of New York, 1982: 225,-226, 244 n. 6, no. 61.

  • Isaacson, Joel. "Impressionism and Journalistic Illustration." Arts Magazine 56, no. 10 (June 1982): 105, repro.

1983

  • Nochlin, Linda. "A Thoroughly Modern Masked Ball." Art in America 71, no. 10 (November 1983): 188-201, repro.

  • Nochlin, Linda. "The Imaginary Orient." Art in America 71, no. 5 (May 1983): 125, repro. 127.

1984

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 450, no. 652, color repro.

  • Stuckey, Charles F. "Degas as an Artist: Revised and Still Unfinished." In Guillard, Maurice, ed. Degas form and space. Paris, 1984: 33, repro.

1985

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 247, repro.

  • House, John. Impressionist Masterpieces, National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1985: 30, repro.

1986

  • Adler, Kathleen. Manet. Oxford, 1986: 156-161, repro. 149.

  • Weitzenhoffer, Francis. The Havemeyers: Impressionism Comes to America, New York, 1986: 98, 101-102, 176, repro.

1987

  • Borowitz, Helen O. "No Strings: Some New Sources for Manet's Pulichinelles." _Nineteenth-Century French Studies_15. no. 4(Summer 1987): 425-451, repro.

1989

  • Nochlin, Linda. The Politics of Visions: Essays on Nineteenth-Century Art and Society. New York, 1989: 75+, repro.

  • Distel, Anne. Les collectionneurs des impressionnistes. Amateurs et marchands. Paris, 1989:78, repro.

1990

  • Französische Impressionisten und ihre Wegbereiter aus der National Gallery of Art, Washington und dem Cincinnati Art Museum. Exh. cat. Neue Pinakothek, Munich, 1990: no. 24, repro.

1991

  • Coman, Florence E. Joie de Vivre: French Paintings from the National Gallery of Art. Washington, 1991: no. 10, repro.

  • Kopper, Philip. America's National Gallery of Art: A Gift to the Nation. New York, 1991: 9, 297, color repro.

  • Wilson-Bareau, Juliet, ed. Manet by Himself: Paintings, Pastels, Prints, and Drawings. London, 1991: repro. 157.

  • Darragon, Eric. Manet. Paris, 1991: 237, 280, repro. 162.

1992

  • Carr-Gomm, Sarah. Manet. London, 1992: 106, repro.

  • Feist, Peter H. Malerei des Impressionismus 1860-1920. 2 vols. Cologne, 1992: 1: 110, repro.

  • Stevenson, Lesley. Manet. New York, 1992: 121, repro.

1993

  • Manoeuvre, Laurent. Manet-Paris. Paris, 1993: 44, repro.

  • Perutz, Vivien. Edouard Manet. London and Toronto, 1993: repro. 43.

1994

  • Rubin, James H. Manet's Silence and the Poetics of Bouquets. Cambridge, 1994: repro. 34.

1995

  • Callen, Anthea. The Spectacular Body: Science, Method, and Meaning in the Work of Degas. New Haven and London, 1995: 70, repro.

1996

  • Roos, Jane Mayo. Early Impressionism and the French State (1866-1874). Cambridge, 1996: 200- 202, fig. 143.

1997

  • Kelder, Diane. The Great Book of French Impressionism, 1997, no. 95, repro.

  • Bailey, Colin B. Renoir's Portraits: Impressions of an Age. Exh. cat. Yale University Press, New Haven and London, in association with National Gallery of Canada Ottawa, 1997:no. 74, repro.

1998

  • Manet, Monet, and the Gare Saint-Lazare. Exh. cat. Musée d'Orsay, Paris; National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1998: no. 26.

  • Galligan, Gregory. "The Self Pictured: Manet, the Mirror, and the Occupation of Realist Painting." The Art Bulletin 80, no. 1 (March 1998): 157, repro.

2003

  • Mena Marqués, Manuela B. Manet en el Prado. Exh. cat. Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, 2003: 91, repro.

2013

  • Alsdorf, Bridget. Fellow Men: Fantin-Latour and the Problem of the Group in Nineteenth-Century French Painting. Princeton, 2013: 193, 197-198, color plate 28.

  • Harris, Neil. Capital Culture: J. Carter Brown, the National Gallery of Art, and the Reinvention of the Museum Experience. Chicago and London, 2013: 246, 248.

2014

  • Duve, Thierry de. “The Invention of Non-Art: A History.” Artforum 52, no. 6 (February 2014): 198, 199, color fig.

Inscriptions

lower right: Manet

Wikidata ID

Q1163504

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