ÉDOUARD MANET
Part Two

The painter of Parisian modernité, Édouard Manet, abandoned his early strategy of commenting on past masterpieces but continued his quest to update and modernize traditional genres in Salon painting. A transitional painter, Manet pointed to way to the final break from Academic art with his work during the last two decades of his life. One of the main themes of Manet’s work is the traffic in sex, a theme that exposed the hypocrisy of the Second Empire in which women bore the burden of male sins and sexual exploits. Manet’s point of view is that of the privileged male of the upper classes, the kind of man who frequents brothels and other sites of pleasure. Although much of the art historical writing on Manet has focused on his formal innovations, but this podcast stresses the scandalous and revelatory content of his art, which defines “modernité” in terms of male experience.

Also listen to “Édouard Manet, Part One” and “Sincerity and Artifice in French Realism” and “European Realism, Part One” and “European Realism, Part Two”

Read “Manet and Modernité” and “Manet and the Impressionists” and “Manet and the Nude” 

If you have found this material useful, please give credit to Dr. Jeanne S. M. Willette and Art History Unstuffed.
Thank you.

Get in Touch!

4 + 3 =