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Édouard Manet was born in Paris on January 3. Manet's family was well to do. His father, Auguste, wanted him to follow in a legal career, but Manet wanted to paint. In the end, he went to Brazil to be in the Navy. His career took a different turn, though, when he failed his exams. Instead, he went to paint under Thomas Couture. Six years later, Manet left Couture and traveled throughout Europe, copying the old masters (just like Degas). His influences were the Spanish painters Velazquez and de Goya.
Few painters have suffered as controversial a career as Édouard Manet (1832-1883), the artist often cited as the founder of modern painting. His work was bold and unsentimental, and his contemporaries found it shocking. Although Manet's work was strikingly different from the other art of his day, Manet himself was thoroughly schooled in the work of the old masters. He spent six years studying under Thomas Couture arduously copying the work of Rembrandt, Titian and Veldzquez.
Manet's first success came at the Salon of 1861. His painting, The Spanish Singer, was not only accepted, but won an honorable mention. Nevertheless, there were already those who resisted Manet's vision. "What poetry in the idiotic mule-driver figure,  in the blank wall, in the onion and the cigarette butt," wrote one critic. "What a scourge to society is a realist painter," wrote another. Despite the attacks, Manet relished the official recognition conferred by the Salon, and he would continue to seek that official blessing throughout his life.
If Manet's critics had been offended by The Spanish Singer, they were completely scandalized by Olympia, the nude portrait Manet considered his masterpiece. Though evocative of Goya and Titian, Olympia's hard-edged realism shocked the audiences of its day. Rather than presenting a nude as a perfect form or setting it in a mythological context, Manet offered a bold, frank portrait, shocking in its perspective and style, of a prostitute waiting for a client. Surprisingly, the work was accepted for the Salon of 1865. Audiences and critics, however, were unprepared for such a work. "Abuses rain upon me like hail," Manet wrote. His work was reviled as a "terrible canvas"; his model as "vile" and "wretched." "The crowd, as at the morgue, presses together in front of the gamy Olympia." The work displayed "an almost childish ignorance of the first elements of drawing" and Manet "a bent for unbelievable vulgarity." A hero of the avant garde, the artist was accused of being deliberately provocative.
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  Édouard Manet Multiple Formats, Color, NTSC; Number of discs: 1; Jul 27, 2010 Edouard Manet was a flaneur in 19th century Paris. At ease among the grande bourgeoisie, a friend of Zola and Baudelaire, his interest turned gradually from history painting to scenes of city life. All his life he longed to be recognised, but works like Luncheon on the Grass and Olympia gave rise only to scandal. Moreover, his provocative snapshots of everyday life struck the viewer as only half-finished, a quality appealing to the artists later called Impressionists.
The film was shot on location at the Musee d'Orsay, the home of French nineteenth-century art; in Spain, to evoke the landscape and culture which so influenced Manet s early work; and around Paris, where, in the bars, cafes, salons and theatres, the atmosphere of the society in which Manet lived can still be captured. Archive material is used to show the city as it was in Manet's day.
 Manet: The Still-Life Paintings by Henri Loyrette, Musee D'Orsay, Walters Art Gallery, George L. Mauner – Hardcover: 200 pages; Harry N. Abrams (Feb 1, 2001) Best Seller The French artist Édouard Manet was delighted when a client who purchased his painting of a bunch of asparagus paid more than the asking price. So he sent a special thank-you—a tiny image of a single pale spear of the prized vegetable. These and other lushly painted still lifes of flowers, fruits, and other foodstuffs, isolated or in groups, form one of the most beguiling aspects of Manet's output from the 1860s through the early '80s. Manet: The Still-Life Paintings, the catalog for the exhibition at the Walters Art Gallery in Baltimore, Maryland, through April 22, 2001, serves as a pleasant introduction to the intimate late work of the great 19th-century realist. With 106 color reproductions, including close-up details of brushwork, the modestly scaled volume makes for a satisfying browse. The most deliciously unexpected treats are the luminous watercolors of fruit, nuts, or flowers that Manet interwove with his personal correspondence.
 Manet & the Execution of Maximilian by Édouard Manet, John Elderfield – Paperback: 200 pages; Museum of Modern Art (Nov 15, 2006) The execution of Emperor Maximilian of Mexico, in 1867, was the subject of a quartet of paintings by the French Impressionist and early Modernist Édouard Manet. These works are rarely shown together, and in fact cannot be seen in their entirety, since one of them exists only in fragments, but the three intact paintings and the surviving elements of the fourth are reproduced in this publication, and will be shown at The Museum of Modern Art’s exhibition in the fall of 2006.
Maximilian's death was an event of great public interest in France, in part because French policies shared the responsibility for it. A European aristocrat of the Hapsburg family, Maximilian had been installed in 1864 after a trio of European powers, led by Napoleon III of France, mounted an invasion of Mexico to reclaim debts upon which the Mexican government had suspended payment.
But Napoleon soon withdrew, abandoning Maximilian to his fate at the hands of a resurgent Mexican army. As news of the execution reached Paris, Manet reacted with a group of works synthesizing the information as it came to him and drawing heavily on an earlier painting inspired by violent political events, Goya's The Third of May. In addition to analyzing and documenting the creation of these works, John Elderfield, in his text, clarifies their historical importance in the context of modern art, and in so doing, offers a capsular history of the place of current events in art.
 Manet: A Retrospective by Theresa Ann Gronberg – Hardcover: 378 pages; Random House Value Publishing (Aug 29, 1990) Art book on leading Impressionist painter large "coffee table" or gift book with numerous full-color plates
 The Painting of Modern Life: Paris in the Art of Manet and His Followers by T.J. Clark – Paperback: 406 pages; Gardners Books; 2nd edition (Dec 31, 1999) Reader review: As a student of nineteenth century French painting, I think this may in fact be the finest book ever written on Parisian painting in the time of Haussmanization. Clark manages to offer an intelligent Marxist-based claim about class and the emerging Parisian landscape in the 60's without losing sight of the paintings themselves. While most scholars feel the genius of this book lies in his wonderful discussion of "what couldn't be seen in Olympia", I find the first chapter "Environs of Paris" equally fascinating in its discussion of Manet's Exposition Universelle of 1867. A MUST read for any lover of Parisian history or Manet.
 Manet's Modernism: Or, the Face of Painting in the 1860s by Michael Fried – Paperback: 676 pages; University of Chicago Press (Nov 15, 1998) In Manet's Modernism, Michael Fried has set out to see Manet as his contemporaries would have seen him and to gain a more accurate reading of Manet's place in history.
 Édouard Manet by Vivien Perutz – Hardcover: 237 pages; Bucknell University Press (Jul 1993) This easy, well-executed study on Manet could well become a standard introduction. Its chief virtue is its organization, presenting most of the major theories about Manet's work in one large attractive volume. . . . The author's writing style is straightforward and essentially free of art historical jargon. This book will disappoint advanced students, however.
 Alias Olympia: A Woman's Search for Manet's Notorious Model & Her Own Desire by Eunice Lipton – Paperback: 181 pages; Cornell University Press; New edition (May 1999) Eunice Lipton was a fledging art historian when she first became intrigued by Victorine Meurent, the nineteenth-century model who appeared in Édouard Manet's most famous paintings, only to vanish from history in a haze of degrading hearsay. But had this bold and spirited beauty really descended into prostitution, drunkenness, and early death—or did her life, hidden from history, take a different course altogether? Eunice Lipton's search for the answer combines the suspense of a detective story with the revelatory power of art, peeling off layers of lies to reveal startling truths about Victorine Meurent—and about Lipton herself.
 The Last Flowers of Manet by Robert Gordon, Andrew Forge, Richard Howard (Translator) – Hardcover: 48 pages; Harry N. Abrams (Apr 1, 1999) This 1986 volume collects for the first time 17 paintings by the famous Impressionist painter that are among the last he completed before his tragic death at age 51. Also included are selections from Manet's letters and papers plus an essay by Gordon. Though slim, this beautiful hardcover is a steal. Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc
 Édouard Manet by Pierre Courthion – Hardcover: 128 pages; Harry N. Abrams (Apr 1984) Édouard Manet was one of the first artists who can truly be called "modern," combining a highly individual and fresh vision with tremendous technical virtuosity. Together with the sumptuous color plates, the text by Manet specialist Pierre Courthion offers an unforgettable view of the glories of this artist's work.
 Manet by Ronald Pickvance – Paperback: 269 pages; Fondation Pierre Gianadda (1996) Text: English, French
  Manet: Painter of Modern Life Color, NTSC; Produced by: Metropolitan Museum of Art; Jun 13, 2000; 28 minutes This colorful program presents the work of the great French Impressionist in the context of his 19th century world. Manet believed that a serious painter should explore modern life and his paintings feature the Paris of his time: its fashionable society, middle class, and such fellow artists as Baudelaire and Zola, whose writings provide the narrative for the program.
 Édouard Manet, 1832-1883. Philadelphia Museum of Art. by Anne Coffin Hanson – Paperback: 205 pages; Philadelphia Museum of Art (1966) A catalogue accompanying an exhibition of work by Édouard Manet shown at the Philadelphia Museum of Art November 3rd through December 11th, 1966 and The Art Institute of Chicago January 13th through February 19th, 1967. This was the most extensive exhibition of his work held in the US until that time. Illustrated with seven color reproductions in the front and heavily illustrated with black and white photographs throughout. Bibliography, 205p.
|  Portraying Life: Manet by MaryAnne Stevens, Colin B. Bailey, Stéphane Guégan, Leah Lehmbeck – Hardcover: 224 pages; Royal Academy Books; 1st edition (Oct 1, 2012) Best Seller Today, it seems astonishing that the work of Edouard Manet (1832–83), the master French painter, was controversial in his day. His subversive handling of both paint and subject matter, coupled with his detached gaze, shocked contemporaries—but established him as the father of modern painting. This remarkable book, published to accompany an important traveling exhibition, explores the artist’s stylistic evolution in the context of his portraiture.
 Manet and the Sea by Juliet Wilson-Bareau, David Degener – Hardcover: 288 pages; Yale University Press (Oct 20, 2003) Édouard Manet (1832-1883) was passionate about the sea. Before becoming a painter, he spent six months at sea, and, like many Europeans of his era, he took numerous seaside holidays. Manet made his public debut as a marine painter at the Paris Salon of 1864 with The Battle of the U.S.S. "Kearsarge" and the C.S.S. "Alabama," his dramatic depiction of a U.S. Civil War naval battle off the coast of France, and he continued to paint seascapes throughout his career. These extraordinary works clearly reflect his intimate knowledge of and love for maritime vessels and the sea.
Manet and the Sea is the first book to highlight the French master's beautiful and varied seascapes. Essays by leading scholars discuss how Manet completely overturned the established academic conventions of marine painting in France. His provocative approach was equal to that of his contemporary Gustave Courbet, and his bold and innovative techniques inspired many younger artists, including Claude Monet, Berthe Morisot, James McNeill Whistler, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Essays on these and other artists place their seascapes in relation to Manet's pictures. This handsomely illustrated and designed book presents over one hundred paintings and drawings in full color. Anyone interested in the sea, maritime painting, nineteenth-century French painting, and particularly the role Manet played in the Impressionist revolution, will find this an essential book to own.
 Manet: A Visionary Impressionist by Henri Lallemand – Hardcover: 144 pages; New Line Books; New edition (Jan 1, 2005) Reader review: This is a GREAT BOOK!!!! You do not have to know anything about art history to be able to appreciate and admire Manet's paintings. Lallemand is a wonderful author. He portrays his subject in an honest way without condemning or praising him, letting the reader decide. The thing I like about the books that Lallemand writes--3 that I know of--is that they are these oversized coffee table books (144 pages), filled with info on the artist, and best of all, IN COLOR PAINTINGS ON EVERY PAGE. This is not like other art books, where the majority of paintings are in black and white, rather the reader gets to savor every picture because they are in color. Plus, there are details and close ups of some of the more famous paintings. And there are over 100 paintings. (Not tiny pictures either, whole pages, two pages even, are used to show the paintings.) [...] I hope everyone who enjoys art owns this book. It is a joy to look through and see the artistry and mastery of Manet.
 Manet and the American Civil War: The Battle of U.S.S Kearsarge and C.S.S. Alabama by David Degner, Juliet Wilson-Bareau – Paperback: 86 pages; Metropolitan Museum of Art (Jun 10, 2003) This fascinating book focuses on The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s recent acquisition, The "Kearsarge" at Boulogne, by Édouard Manet (1832–1883). During the American Civil War, when Union forces blocked Confederate ports, the Confederacy countered by waging guerrilla warfare on Union merchant shipping. One of the most skilled Confederate raiders was the sloop-of-war Alabama. On June 19, 1864, the U.S.S. Kearsarge and the C.S.S. Alabama fought off the coast of Cherbourg, France. The Alabama sank less than two hours after the first shot was fired. The battle captured the attention of the French people, and Manet, who as a teenager had served in the French navy, raced to Boulogne to see the victorious Kearsarge. He painted a depiction of the battle (which he did not witness), now in Philadelphia, as well as a portrait of the Kearsarge, now in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This volume contains essays about the Metropolitan’s picture and five additional seascapes painted by Manet in Boulogne during the summer of 1864. Related works by other artists, photographs, and newspaper articles are also included.
 Édouard Manet: Rebel in a Frock Coat by Beth Archer Brombert – Paperback: 528 pages; University of Chicago Press; 1st edition (Nov 24, 1997) This is the first full-length biography of painter Edouard Manet in English since the translation of Henri Perruchot's Manet in 1962. Manet's importance to the development of art, both as an early, if reluctant, leader of the impressionist movement and his interactions with a wide range of writers, most importantly Zola and Baudelaire, are explored in great detail here.
 Twelve Views of Manet's Bar by Bradford Collins (Editor) – Paperback: 384 pages; Princeton University Press (Mar 4, 1996) Bradford Collins has assembled here a collection of twelve essays that demonstrates, through the interpretation of a single work of art, the abundance and complexity of methodological approaches now available to art historians. Focusing on Manet's A Bar at the Folies-Bergère, each contributor applies to it a different methodology, ranging from the more traditional to the newer, including feminism, Marxism, Lacanian psychoanalysis, and semiotics. By demonstrating the ways that individual practitioners actually apply the various methodological insights that inform their research, Twelve Views of Manet's "Bar" serves as an excellent introduction to critical methodology as well as a provocative overview for those already familiar with the current discourse of art history. In the process of gaining new insight into Manet's work, and into the discourse of methodology, one discovers that it is not only the individual painting but art history itself that is under investigation.
 Manet, Monet, and the Gare Saint-Lazare by Juliet Wilson-Bareau, Juliet Wilson Bareau – Hardcover: 224 pages; Yale University Press (Mar 30, 1998) Symbolizing energy and progress, the railroad became a focus for Impressionist painters Manet, Monet, and other artists after the Franco-Prussian War. Based on new research into the streets and studios of Paris, this book identifies the site of Manet's picture Gare Saint-Lazare, contrasts his major works of the 1870s with earlier key paintings, and situates the artist within his setting and associates of the time. 60 color and 101 b&w illustrations.
 Manet by Himself by Juliet Wilson Bareall – Hardcover: 328 pages; Chartwell Books (Sep 30, 1995) Book Sales A delightful tribute to an Impressionist who easily established himself as a leading figure in the art world can be found in Manet By Himself. . . . This is a book that enables us to take a fresh look at an artist whose primary aim was to forget what he called 'artistic tricks of the trade' in favor of painting and seeing things afresh.
 Édouard Manet: Rebel in a Frock Coat by Beth Archer Brombert – Paperback: 528 pages; University of Chicago Press (Nov 24, 1997) Manet's lustrous and profoundly psychological paintings bridge the gap between the traditional and the modern, the formulaic and the personal, the artificial and the real, but because he revolutionized art without ever once letting down the facade of his upper-class propriety, he has been castigated as a moneyed dandy who didn't really know what he was doing when he painted his controversial canvases. Biographer Brombert was determined to bury that misconception once and for all, and she has succeeded to an exhilarating degree.
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Édouard Manet: Images of Parisian Life (Pegasus Library)
Édouard Manet: The Graphic Work: A Catalogue Raisonne
Manet and the Modern Tradition
Graphisme De Manet II
