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.

FLAUTIST

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.