Manet and Realism

Édouard Manet (23 January 1832 – 30 April 1883) was a French painter, his works are largely popular but I thought I would blog about him, as he was an important figure as bridge from Realism to Impressionism. Manet considered himself at the time as Realist artists painting everyday leisure scenes from all social classes. 

‘Music in the Tuileries Gardens’ depicts a leisurely activity of well dressed friends (including Manet himself) Where as ‘The Plum’ portrays a young women waiting by herself in bar drinking, she could be a prostitute waiting for her next client or shop worker waiting for conversation and makes me think of real life moments when everything is so quiet and lonely.

Music in the Tuileries Gardens 1862

The Plum 1877

Many people, on the contrary believe his radical style of painting and modern subject matter influenced the work of impressionists, and he is hailed as the father of ‘Impressionism.’ Painters before Manet used to paint their canvases with a dark brown paint and build layers on top of it; this was a lengthy process as they would have to wait for each layer to dry before adding then next and finally glazing the painting to achieve a smooth finish. As a realist, Manet preferred to paint from real life, often finish a painting in one sitting. Before it could take weeks even months for a painting to dry, but instead he no longer used layers but painted with strokes of the perfect colour of the objects he was trying to achieve. 

Source:
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/mane/hd_mane.htm
http://www.manetedouard.org/