Indeed, Manet’s most controversial work-Olympia-was probably the first true work of modern art. But the latter was seen as the father of Impressionism during his lifetime: he gave the other impressionists the confidence to take on the conservative art world. These days Claude Monet is probably more famous than Manet.
But his fascinating life saw him sail to Rio de Janeiro on a merchant ship, become a household name in France when he took on the conservative art establishment with a painting of a prostitute, defend Paris when the Prussians laid siege to it in 1870/1, and even fight a duel. Manet’s roots were a blessing and a burden: he did not have to worry about money, being left a substantial inheritance on his father’s death in 1862, and so could paint his way without having to worry about sales.īut his desire to please his father and justify his career choice after his father’s death meant that he never stopped trying to gain recognition at the Salon, the official exhibition put on by the French state each year-with only limited success. Manet was, unlike many of the other impressionists, born into a wealthy bourgeois family: his father a senior civil servant and later a judge his mother the goddaughter of the Swedish crown prince. Edouard Manet (1832-1883) was the leader of the impressionist movement, who took on the conservative art establishment in the 1860s with revolutionary works such as Dejeuner sur l'Herbe and Olympia.