Édouard Manet’s controversial painting “The Luncheon on the Grass”, 1863 shows a 19th-century picnic in the woods, where a nude female sits in mixed company with two upper-class and fully clothed men, as another woman finishes her bath in the distance. All are so comfortable in the situation and act as if nothing unusual is happening. This painting done early in his career created a firestorm, because it went against every norm of how the gentry were expected to conduct themselves, but launched his acceptance into the circle of Avant-Garde artists known as The Impressionists.
Édouard Manet, French Impressionist Painter – b. January 1832 – d. April 1883.
Édouard Manet was a 19th-century artist and a transitional figure in moving French painting from Realism to Impressionism.
Born into an upper-class household with strong political connections, Manet rejected the future originally envisioned for him, and became engrossed in the world of art and painting.
His early masterworks, The Luncheon on the Grass (Le déjeuner sur l’herbe) and Olympia, both 1863, caused great controversies and served as rallying points for the young painters who wanted to rock the boat and would go on to create Impressionism. Today, these are considered watershed paintings that help mark the beginning of modern art. The last 20 years of Manet’s life saw him form bonds with other great artists of the time, and develop his own style of “Realistic Impressionism.” He became a major influencer of future painters.
The Painting “Jeanne (Spring)” c.1881 by Édouard Manet
Let’s Take A Very Close Look at the Details of this Painting.
“Jeanne (Spring)” 1881 by Édouard Manet, Oil on canvas. At the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, the Impressionist Collection. The entire painting is shown above.
“Jeanne (Spring)” depicts a young actress, Jeanne Demarsy, as the fashionable embodiment of spring. This portrait was part of an unfinished series on the seasons that Manet undertook. Presented formally against a luxuriant background of rhododendrons, Jeanne typifies the chick Parisian woman in her white floral-accented dress, suede gloves, ruffled bonnet, and dainty parasol – a spring ensemble that Manet is said to have selected himself, as he made the rounds of reputed dressmakers and milliners. The painting, one of Manet’s most charming and vibrant, was exhibited to much acclaim at the 1882 Paris Salon.
Detail 1 – “Jeanne (Spring)” – LET’S LOOK AT THE BRUSH STROKES and how the colors are laid down on the canvas of this painting. Notice each individual brush stroke in the ruffle of her bonnet. Historians all talk about Impressionism being mostly about capturing the impression of a moment in time, capturing that specific light, capturing that time of day, and painting from life. Which is all true, the brush strokes, to me, are the most differentiating aspect there is regarding Impressionist painting – making it less formal, less academic, and less like the Romantic and Classical paintings that preceded the Impressionist movement.
Detail 2 – “Jeanne (Spring)” by Édouard Manet – THE BRUSH STROKES are put down quickly. For the most part, all blending was done on the artist’s palette, then the oil paint was applied to the canvas in short strokes, and dabs, left untouched until another stroke of paint was placed over it or beside it.
Detail 3 – “Jeanne (Spring)” – EVEN THE DIRECTION OF EACH BRUSH STROKE helps to create a sense of reality in Impressionistic painting. Notice the folds in her glove, the realism is helped by an “impasto” application of oil paint, being laid on the surface in thick curving strokes, accentuating the curving roundness of her arm.
Detail 3a – “Jeanne (Spring)” – YES, EACH STROKE TELLS A STORY. The floral pattern on her dress is perfectly implied with each stroke creating part of a printed flower. Also look at the leaves surrounding her created by individual strokes of the brush.
Detail 4 – “Jeanne (Spring)” – EACH LEAF, A SINGLE STROKE. No better example than these leaves to show a stroke of mixed pain on the brush, then it may be highlighted and shadow formed when more individual strokes are added – making up the complexity of the impressionist style. Side-by-side the colors blend. This direct, simplistic style of painting was night-and-day different from the way artists were taught at the time, different from how oil painting had been done, for hundreds of years.
Detail 5 – “Jeanne (Spring)”– IT IS ON THE FACE WHERE MANET SHOWS HIS TRANSITION IN TECHNIQUE FROM A REALISTIC PAINTER TO AN IMPRESSIONIST PAINTER. Most of the tones on the face show old-school blending of the color and strokes, but there are some other direct, short brush strokes and outlines that are easy to see and keep the painting cohesive with the rest of the quick style in the painting. The blending of the paint on the canvas makes the face more realistic, more like “academic realism” than the dabs of an impressionist’s technique. Notice the outline under the nose, on the center line of her lips, on the eyelash, pupil, and eyebrow… they are all single strokes of paint. There are other areas of the flesh, where dabs of paint help create the skin tones, highlights, and shadows of the face.
(Editor’s Note) In classical academic painting, often artists like David, left a painting unfinished around the edges with his quick strokes being evident, but that unfinished look was purposefully done in order to focus the viewer’s attention on the subject’s face. More or less saying to the viewer, the clothes and the background do not matter, look at perfectly the face is rendered! This technique might have been the touchstone for the Impressionists. because these unfinished areas of classical painting added vibrancy and life to the otherwise “perfect” paintings.
Manet takes advantage of his formal training in realistic painting on his technique for this face, by blending the paint into a realistic fleshy surface, he makes the face the focus and a place for the eye to look first.
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“The Rue Mosnier with Flags” 1878 by Édouard Manet
ANOTHER PAINTING – We will look very closely at this painting, too. Titled “The Rue Mosnier with Flags” it was painted three years before “Jeanne (Spring)”. First, let’s appreciate the painting as a whole.
“The Rue Mosnier with Flags” 1878 by Édouard Manet – A ONE LEGGED MAN IS WALKING DOWN THE COBBLESTONED RUE MOSNIER. The French flag is flying everywhere, from every balcony, every window and every doorway. They must be celebrating “Bastille Day” (French Independence Day), meaning the painting was created on or near July 14th of 1878.
Detail 1 – “The Rue Mosnier with Flags” – IN THIS PAINTING Manet is not trying to bridge any gaps with the history of painting. The entire painting is very impressionistic, being made-up of quick dabs of paint and relatively short brush strokes. No paint has is blended on the canvas and no subject seems to be realistic in presentation, only a quick impression of this everyday scene is conveyed.
Detail 2 – “The Rue Mosnier with Flags” – A FEW BOLD STROKES OF TRANSPARENT PAINT make up the ghost of a man in a blue suit and a tall top hat walking toward the viewer, on the sidewalk. If you study this man closely and squint your eyes, Manet has gone in with some smaller brushes and given definition in the roundness of his hat, creating a shadow on his full long face, we can almost see eyes, nose, a mouth and the chin line. There is a subtle separation between his vest and his jacket, plus a white dab of paint creates his shirt collar. Beside him, a handsome cab is in the street and tilts as the driver steps aboard. He, the cab and the horse are very quickly defined with Manet’s use of contrasting colors. This detail “works” and is easily understood with minimal information.
Detail 3 – “The Rue Mosnier with Flags” – CLOSER TO THE VIEWER, THERE ARE TWO LADIES also on the sidewalk. The one behind the light pole is masterfully executed considering she is behind a light pose and next to a flag. Even though she is defined only by a few dabs of blue paint and some highlights with a quick scribble of the white for her shawl and a dot or two of paint for her dark shoes. Although quickly done, her human frame is correctly constructed inside that dress and we believe this messy shape is a person, truly walking along. The second lady closer to the viewer, shown in more detail below, is a miniature portrait. We see all of the nuances of her profile, her hairstyle, her eyes, nose, mouth, chin, the highlights and shadows on her face.
Manet has been able to give us all of the details in her face and hair, by only using a few quick strokes of paint.
Detail 4 – “The Rue Mosnier with Flags” – FINALLY as the painting recedes into the distance, every single stroke of paint represents something which Manet has closely observed everything but simplified it to basic suggestions. A master is at work here, these are not just random dots of paint, but dots of paint that if you squint, almost become photographic.
“The Rue Mosnier with Flags” ONE LAST LOOK AT THE COMPLETE PAINTING: This painting may look simple with so many bold strokes of oil paint over the entire canvas, yet all of the information is there… the sunlight, the shadows, there is a dirty patch in the foreground of the street, plus the trees, the carriage, the people and everything in the distance. We feel the gravity, all of the buildings and people are firmly grounded, nothing floats. We also feel emotions, sympathy for the man who has lost one leg and a festive sense of a celebration. This painting took an accomplished master to execute in this quick-looking impressionistic style.
After this close look at”The Rue Mosnier with Flags” we hope you appreciate this painting much more. The painting looks simple, but it is not, it took the mind, eye and skill of a master painter, Édouard Manet.
These paintings are a part of the massive Getty Museum of Art and Decorative Arts. As you can see from this areal view, the museum is more of a campus than a traditional museum, as it sits on a high bluff overlooking all of Los Angeles.
(Source: A staff visit to the Getty museum – all photos of the artworks were taken by ARTSandFOOD staff with permission. Manet bio is from Wikipedia, and the photo of the Getty is from the museum’s website.)
