¶ … Innovations of Edouard Manet

With Edouard Manet (1832-1883), the course of modern painting shifted into a new phase which greatly influenced many generations of painters that followed in his footsteps. Almost at the moment when the Realists were discarding romantic subject matter in order to represent what they saw around them, Manet and the Impressionists raised the possibility that what one sees has nothing to do with how one sees it. For Manet, the real world was solid objects moving in space while under the influence of optical sensations of light and color. In a sense, naturalistic Impressionism continued the Romantic preoccupation with the self of the artist while focusing on purely visual sensations. In the mind of Manet, the world was no longer a given order of masses in space but rather the source of sensations of light and color with no fixed order except for that which he created from his own optical experiences.

The best example of these Impressionistic ideals is found in Manet's 1863 Dejeuner sur L'Herbe ("Luncheon on the Grass") in which Manet attempted to combine a modern setting with earlier designs. In this painting, Manet drew away the concealing veil of classical illusion and brought the nude up-to-date. The lady in this painting is not a nymph or Venus but a modern prostitute who cares little about what people think of her. Another work, Bar at the Folies-Bergere (1882) illustrates another quality that was to increase in importance in the work of later painters. While the effect was possibly unplanned, Manet with this painting made a radical break with tradition by redefining the function of the picture surface, i.e. By taking the viewer through the painting's surface via an illusory space behind it, being the mirror in the background which reflects the body of the female bartender. Thus, Manet stands as the master Impressionist who created illusions bathed in light and atmosphere and at times shocked the sensibilities of his contemporary Parisian artists and detractors.