Born in Paris in 1832 to a wealthy family, Édouard Manet showed promise in drawing and caricature from an early age. After twice being denied admission to France’s prestigious Naval College, he enrolled in 1850 at the studio of academic artist Thomas Couture. While copying paintings at the Louvre, Manet became attracted to the bold brushwork of Spanish painter Diego Velázquez. He soon adopted a free manner of painting that opposed the polished surfaces revered by academic artists. Rather than gradually building up a composition with layers of blended pigments and translucent glazes, Manet selected and applied patches of color side by side, from the start, for their final effect.
Manet set out on his own artistic career in 1856. Soon after, his focus on modern subject matter – street scenes, bar life, and backhanded versions of famous art icons – coupled with his unconventional paint handling, regularly provoked critics’ wrath. Olympia, a painting of a naked courtesan who frankly engages the viewer in parody of the classic Venus, triggered an unparalleled scandal when it was exhibited at the 1865 Salon. The uproar made Manet the de facto leader of the avant-garde.
Manet’s bold style, contemporary subject matter, and determination to challenge entrenched academic models influenced younger artists who would come to be known as the impressionists. Manet, too, learned from them, lightening his palette and using even freer brushwork. But he did not share the impressionists’ spontaneity; the striking immediacy of Manet’s greatest works resulted from a deliberate process involving drawing, models, and painting in a studio. Still determined to make his mark in the official Salon, he declined the more radical option of exhibiting with the impressionists.
Manet continued producing enigmatic and inventive paintings about urban life until his death in 1883. While he had gained a reputation as an influential innovator, only posthumously would he be recognized as a father of modern art.