Édouard Manet was a 19th-century artist who was both destined and determined to find a home in the art community. He was born in 1832 to an affluent and upscale family, living in a glorious mansion with his mother, Eugénie-Desirée Fournier, who was the daughter of a diplomat and related to Swedish Royalty, and his stern but gentle father, Auguste Manet, who was a judge. It was, naturally, the expectation of his father that he would take up the legal profession and carry on the Manet legacy, but Édouard had different plans. A trip to the Louvre with his uncle was all it took to pique his interest in art. While he continued his education, he took up special drawing classes on the side, inspired and encouraged by his uncle and other soon-to-be renowned members of the art community.
(By Édouard Manet, Wikimedia Commons)
(By Édouard Manet, Wikimedia Commons)
(By Édouard Manet, Wikimedia Commons)
(By Édouard Manet, Wikimedia Commons)
(By Édouard Manet, Wikimedia Commons)
(By Édouard Manet, Wikimedia Commons)
When he was 16, he gave in to his father's wishes and sailed to Rio De Janeiro on a training vessel. After two failed attempts to join the Navy, his father finally agreed to let him pursue his passion and at age 18, he began learning from Thomas Couture, an academic painter. For 6 years, Manet learned under his tutelage and also practiced recreating the works of the brilliant artists in the Louvre, before opening his own studio in 1856, when he was 24 years old.
(By Édouard Manet, Wikimedia Commons (left); Wikimedia Commons (right)
(By Édouard Manet, Wikimedia Commons)
(By Édouard Manet, Wikimedia Commons)
(By Édouard Manet, Wikimedia Commons)
(By Édouard Manet, Wikimedia Commons)
(By Édouard Manet, Wikimedia Commons)
(By Édouard Manet, Wikimedia Commons)
From here onwards, Manet’s lifelong career had begun. Though his early works adopted the then-popular realist techniques, he was among the first artists to bring forth impressionist and modernist art, depicting scenes from the most contemporary perspective at the time. Though this led to much of his work being declared controversial, there is no doubt that his paintings left an indelible and inconceivably beautiful mark on the face of modern art.
(By Édouard Manet, Wikimedia Commons)
(By Édouard Manet, Wikimedia Commons)
(By Édouard Manet, Wikimedia Commons)
(By Édouard Manet, Wikimedia Commons)
(By Édouard Manet, Wikimedia Commons)
(By Édouard Manet, Wikimedia Commons)
(By Édouard Manet, Wikimedia Commons)
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