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. 

1. Barque of Dante, 1854-1858 

(By Édouard Manet, Wikimedia Commons)  

2. The Spanish Singer, 1860 

(By Édouard Manet, Wikimedia Commons)  

3. Music in the Tuileries Gardens, 1862

(By Édouard Manet, Wikimedia Commons)  

4. The Old Musician, 1862

(By Édouard Manet, Wikimedia Commons)  

5. Portrait of Victorine Meurent, 1862 

(By Édouard Manet, Wikimedia Commons)  

6. The Dead Toreador, 1864 

(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. 

7. Le Printemps, 1881 (left) and La Promenade, 1880 (right)

(By Édouard Manet, Wikimedia Commons (left); Wikimedia Commons (right)  

8. The Kearsarge at Boulogne, 1864

(By Édouard Manet, Wikimedia Commons)  

9. The Races at Longchamp, 1865    

(By Édouard Manet, Wikimedia Commons)  

10. Bullfight, 1865-1866

(By Édouard Manet, Wikimedia Commons)  

11. Bullfight – Death of the Bull, 1865-1866

(By Édouard Manet, Wikimedia Commons)  

12. Luncheon in the Studio (Le déjeuner dans l'atelier), 1868

(By Édouard Manet, Wikimedia Commons)  

13. The Brioche, 1870

(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.

14. The Railway, widely known as Gare Saint-Lazare, 1872-1873

(By Édouard Manet, Wikimedia Commons)

15. Claude Monet Painting on His Studio Boat, 1874

(By Édouard Manet, Wikimedia Commons)  

16. The Grand Canal of Venice (Blue Venice), 1875 

(By Édouard Manet, Wikimedia Commons)  

17. In the Conservatory, 1879 

(By Édouard Manet, Wikimedia Commons)  

18.  Chez le père Lathuille, 1879

(By Édouard Manet, Wikimedia Commons)  

19. Portrait of Monsieur Pertuiset, the Lion-Hunter, 1881

(By Édouard Manet, Wikimedia Commons)

20. A Bar at the Folies-Bergère, 1881-1882 

(By Édouard Manet, Wikimedia Commons)

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