Manet Edouard's Flautist

Manet Edouard 1832–1883

French painter. Active in Paris, he was one of the foremost French artists of the 19th century. Rebelling against the academic tradition, he developed a clear and unaffected realist style. His subjects were mainly contemporary, such as A Bar at the Folies-Bergиre 1882 (Courtauld Art Gallery, London).

Born in Paris, he trained under a history painter and was inspired by Goya and Velбzquez and also by Courbet. His Dйjeuner sur l’herbe/Picnic on the Grass 1863 and Olympia 1865 (both Musйe d’Orsay, Paris) offended conservative tastes in their matter-of-fact treatment of the nude body. He never exhibited with the Impressionists, although he was associated with them from the 1870s.

The most significant work of 1866 is "Flautist". The picture speaks about surprising successes of the artist. It is written in three layers, with such reliance and skill, that never and nobody could them surpass. Manet has acquired in workshop of Cutur all colors, and he used brown tone, so-called "juice". He wrote at once on a thin one-ton ground. Modeling of light and shadow were avaricious, the transition from the covered places to shadows is very realistic. Face and naked parts of a body are given in unusual vitality, which originally was written by soft equal tone, then he planned shadows and only then, at the third stage, he imposed patches of light. He did not aspire to hide the amendments and changes, he simply wrote down by wide stroke of paint, there is a bottom layer of painting is transparent through it, and it creates surprising effects. Manet seldom has mixed paints. The trousers of a flautist are of moraine color (green-dark blue) and they will seem as a Chinese varnish. But some shadows, hardly distinctive from close distance. From far distance the picture is more understandable. This picture is situated in Luxembourg museum.