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Musée d’Orsay presents ‘Manet, the man who invented Modernity’

Manet - Amazone

Édouard Manet
Amazone / l’été [Woman in a Riding Habit, Full Face], 1882
Oil on canvas, 74 x 52 cm
Madrid, Thyssen-Bornemisza Foundation
© Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid.

Édouard Manet, the man who invented Modernity Musée d’Orsay in Paris presents ‘Manet, the man who invented Modernity’, the first exhibition exclusively devoted to Édouard Manet in France since 1983

5 April – 3 July 2011

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Source: Musée d’Orsay / theartwolf.com

Although Édouard Manet is widely considered to be one of the most important, if not the most important, figures in the transition from Realism to Impressionism, the Musée d’Orsay (which houses some of his most famous works, including ‘Le déjeuner sur l’herbe’ or ‘Olympia’) had never organized an exhibition devoted to him. ‘Manet, the man who invented Modernity’ offers a new image of Manet and his generation.

The press note of the exhibition states that “Manet is modern primarily because he embraces, as much as Courbet yet differently, the changes in the media that marked his era, and the unregulated circulation of images; secondly because imperial France, the backdrop to his developing career, was modern. And finally because the manner in which he challenged the masters of the Louvre was modern, extending beyond his militant Hispanism.”

The twelve sections of the exhibition are: “The Couture School”, “The Baudelaire Moment” (focusing on the friendship between Manet and Baudelaire), “On the Future of Christian Art”, “From the Prado to the Alma”, “The Promises of a Face”, “Impressionism trapped”, “1879 – a turning point”, “Less is more?” (Manet’s ‘Asparagus’ – shown in this section- ranks among the most revolutionary still-lifes ever created) and “The end of the Story?”.

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Musée d'Orsay presents 'Manet, the man who invented Modernity'