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A survey of the nineteenth-century French artist's life andwork includes col reproductions of sixty-four paintings. ... Read more

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Current interest in the unexplored iconography of early modern art has led to many suggestive interpretations of the work of Manet. Recent scholarship has given us partial answers to the problems posed by his art through investigations of single images or isolated aspects of his creative processes. This study examines the full range of Manet's production with special emphasis on those masterworks which established his reputation - Le Dejeuner sur I'herbe and Olympia.In an analysis that explores Manet's relationship to his visual and literary sources, popular imagery, and culture, the author establishes a challenging insight into a complex creative personality. As a result, Manet's early stylistic innovations are revealed as inseparable from his thematic content and the problem of its communication. By his perception of fundamental and timeless themes beneath the rich variety of Manet's imagery of modern life, Professor Mauner has been able to regroup the pictures along thematic lines and arrive at an image of the artist quite different from the familiar one. ... Read more

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Tamar’s instrument of seduction in the Hebrew Bible, Penelope’s shroud in Homer’s Odyssey, accessory of brides as well as widows, and hallmark of the religious and the wealthy, the veil has historically been an intriguing signifier. Initially donned in France for liturgical purposes and later for masked balls and as a sun- and windscreen at the seashore, face-covering veils were adopted for fashionable urban use during the reign of Napoleon III. In Sheer Presence, Marni Reva Kessler demonstrates how this ubiquitous garment and its visual representations knot together many of the precepts of Parisian life. Considering the period from the beginning of Napoleon III’s rule in 1852 to 1889, when the Paris Universal Exhibition displayed veiled North African Muslims and other indigenous colonial peoples, Kessler deftly connects the increased presence of the veil on the streets and on canvas to Haussmann’s massive renovation of Paris. The fashion of veil wearing, she argues, was imbricated with broader concerns: fears of dust and disease fueled by Haussmannization and class mixing on the city streets, changes in ideals of youth and beauty, attempts to increase popular support for imperialism, and the development of modernist art practices. A veil was protection for the proper woman from the vices associated with the modern city, preserving—at least on the surface—her femininity and class superiority. Kessler explores these themes with close readings of paintings by Gustave Caillebotte, Edgar Degas, and Edouard Manet—including Manet’s perplexing portraits of artist Berthe Morisot—as well as photographs, images from the popular press, engravings, lithographs, and academic paintings. She also mines French fashion journals, etiquette books, novels, and medical publications for clues to the veil’s complex meanings during the period.Positioning the veil directly at the intersection of feminist, formalist, and social art history, Kessler offers a fresh perspective on period discourses of public health, seduction and sexuality, colonial stereotypes, and, ultimately, an emerging modernity.Marni Reva Kessler is assistant professor of art history at the University of Kansas. ... Read more

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An exploration of causes in history, drawing its examples from the fields of painting and architecture. Using the lives and works of three artists, this book explains how character, craft and culture together determined how each of them created what he did. ... Read more

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This study combines art history and literary criticism in a joint study of the canonical "fathers" of modernism.Arden Reed argues that modernism is a matter of genre bending, hybridization and movements between text and image. Focusing on key works, Reed reveals how Manet and Flaubert actively mix and contaminate their work- Flaubert with images, Manet with narration. Reed extends the argument to the twentieth century, claiming we cannot understand twentieth century modernism while remaining locked within single disciplines. ... Read more

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Introductory text in French, English, and German, followed by black and white plates. ... Read more

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Of all the paintings by the Impressionist master Edouard Manet, nearly one-fifth are still lifes, a genre the artist himself considered “the touchstone of painting.” This sumptuous volume, published to accompany a landmark exhibition at the Walters Art Gallery in Baltimore and at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, is the first major book to focus on this crucial aspect of Manet’s work.

Throughout his career, and especially later in his life, Manet devoted considerable energy to still lifes, producing oils, watercolors, and prints that unite exuberant personal expression with a flawless mastery of light and detail. With informative text, including an enlightening essay by Henri Loyrette, director of the Musée d’Orsay, Manet: The Still-Life Paintings features lush, full-page colorplates as well as full-bleed details of what some critics consider the finest examples of still-life painting ever executed.

The exhibition this book accompanies has been organized by the American Federation of Arts and the Réunion des Musées Nationaux/Musée d’Orsay, Paris.Amazon.com Review
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.

Earlier in Manet's career, still-life images played a supporting role in figure paintings. Author George Mauner, professor emeritus of art history at Pennsylvania State University, guides the reader to observe such details as the cherry falling in midair in Young Man w ith Cherries. This fascination with instantaneous effects would culminate 11 years later in the smoking rifles of the Mexican troops in The Execution of Emperor Maximilian. Manet, of course, was well aware of the tradition of still life as an invocation of the senses and as a reminder of the fleeting nature of sensual pleasure (and life itself). Mauner explains how this art-historical knowledge offers clues to some of the artist's more enigmatic paintings. The quote-heavy, name-dropping style of fellow essayist Henri Loyrette seems less attuned to a general reader's interests. But the book's most grievous sin is one of omission: the failure to include even the briefest biographical outline of Manet's life and work. --Cathy Curtis ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

An explanation of still-life
The essay by Henri Loyette in this book on the meaning of still-life paintings, sets the stage for an exquisite presentation of this collection of Manet plates. By giving us a deep exploration of the history and philosophy of still-life paintings, Loyette situates Manet's still-life paintings in the context of the overall still-life movement -- from Chardin and the Dutch Masters to the role it played in enabling the development of more abstract art.

For one who admired but still kept my distance from still-life paintings, and only understood them from a distance and only "on the surface," Loyette's explanations make good sense and are invaluable to filling in the blanks in my artistic knowledge. I now feel I have a sounder intellectual basis for understanding still-life paintings generally, and for understanding Manet in particular.

But this is not all, in general the explanations of Manet's paintings open up a new avenue for understanding the era of art in which he appeared. His was an important transition period to the new trends in abstract art.

The plates are high quality classics that everyone who appreciates arthave in their collection. Four stars.

Good overview of Manet's still-flife paintings
This book is certainly among the best overviews of Manet's still-life paintings. If you enjoy direct, descriptive paintings with rich color, this book is likely to interest you. I especially liked seeing the "unfinished" basket of pears on page 107 (the kind of work usually left out of such books), which gave me a good idea of how Manet approached his still-lifes of this period. By the way, overall, the reproductions are very good (of course, paintings are never as good in print as in real life).

AN IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT MY ART BOOK REVIEWS: It might seem as though I rate most art books very favorably. The reason for this is that I usually visit my local library before buying a book. I'll look at all (in print and out of print) of the Rembrandt (for example) books and choose my favorite one to purchase. In the case of an artist's monograph, I try to choose one or two comprehensive books for each artist. These are generally large, well illustrated hardcovers with above average reproduction quality and informative text, often by one of the leading scholars on the artist. Thus, by the time I purchase a book, I have already found it to be among the best available on the subject. This is the best book of Manet's still-lifes that I could find. My copy is a hardcover.

Great Exhibition, Disappointing Catalogue
I journeyed to the Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore to see the exhibition. "MANET - The Still Life Paintings" which is on view until April 22, 2001. The show was previously at the Musee d'Orsay in Paris.It is a lovely, intimate show.The majority of these gorgeous still lifes of fruits, vegetables and flowers were painted in the last three years of Manet's life. Unfortunately, the catalogue does not begin to do these beautful oil paintings and watercolors justice.The book's colorplates are of unsatisfactory quality and fail to capture the sumptuousness of these touching works of art.The book measures just shy of 9 inches by 9 inches, too small to get any partial enjoyment after seeing the exhibition. The text does not advance art scholarship. Not worth the price.

Small but magnificent book
The beautifully reproduced paintings. with some detail shots, in this potent package remind us that Manet truly is the 'father of modernism.' The still lifes of fruit alone would make this book a must have for any art book lover. His peaches, lemons, strawberries and plums are so full of longing, sadness, bliss and sheer beauty that they stop you in your tracks. I don't know how else to say it: Manet was an artist of cosmic proportions. The transcenant nature of the work juxtaposed against the audacious technique rightfully set Manet at the forefront of the western cannon. ... Read more

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This Book Is In French. ... Read more

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Chapters: Le Déjeuner Sur L'herbe, Olympia, a Bar at the Folies-Bergère, the Fifer, the Reading, the Railway, Music in the Tuileries. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 28. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Le déjeuner sur l'herbe (French, "The Lunch on the Grass") originally titled Le Bain (The Bath) is a large oil on canvas painting by Édouard Manet. Created in 1862 and 1863, its juxtaposition of a female nude with fully dressed men sparked controversy when the work was first exhibited at the Salon des Refusés. The piece is now in the Musée d'Orsay in Paris. A smaller, earlier version can be seen at the Courtauld Gallery, London. In 1863, Manet shocked the French public by exhibiting his Déjeuner sur l'Herbe ("Luncheon on the Grass"). It is not a realist painting in the social or political sense of Daumier, but it is a statement in favor of the artist's individual freedom. The shock value of a woman, naked as can be, casually lunching with two fully dressed men, which was an affront to the propriety of the time, was accentuated by the familiarity of the figures. Manet's wife, Suzanne Leenhoff, and his favorite model, Victorine Meurent, both posed for the nude woman, which has Meurent's face, but Leenhoff's plumper body. Her body is starkly lit and she stares directly at the viewer. The two men are Manet's brother Eugene Manet and his future brother in law, Ferdinand Leenhoff. They are dressed like dandies. The men seem to be engaged in conversation, ignoring the woman. In front of them, the woman's clothes, a basket of fruit, and a round loaf of bread are displayed, as in a still life. In the background a lightly clad woman bathes in a stream. Too large in comparison with the figures in the foreground, she seems to float above them. The roughly painted background lacks depth giving ...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=982228 ... Read more

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A sense of stillness and silence pervades Manet's painting. His flattened, sometimes fragmented forms appear to exist absentmindedly in a world removed from speech. It is this silence that James Rubin explores in a book that shows us Manet as we see him--naturally, in pictures that articulated their own purely visual terms. In such a sense, this book is about the restoration of the visual to its primacy in art through Manet's painting.

While insisting that Manet's pictures must be given the first and final say in any interpretation, Rubin uses contradictory views of the painter's works--from the present and past--as a context for approaching them. Applying J.L. Austin's notion of the performative, which bridges the gap between language and action or between the painted image and its social effect, Rubin goes beyond past theorists to describe the curious ways in which Manet's paintings act upon us. With these ideas as his guide, he takes us through Manet's work, pointing out the element that are distinctive and consistent, particularly the painter's reliance on a pattern of gazes and the "unique state of undecidability" that this strategy produces. Rubin also examines Manet's relatioship to three of the leading critics of his day--Baudelaire, Zola, and Mallarmé--giving special attention to Mallarmé's appreciation, and eventual use in his poetry, of the paradox between immersion and externality in Manet's oeuvre. Finally, the book uses the image of the bouquet to exemplify Manet's creative poetics through an exploration of his still life.

Filled with revealing insights into Manet's achievevment, this sensitive, informed, and clearly written book goes a long way toward explaining why Manet's paintings continue to fascinate and elude us more than one hundred years after the artist's death.

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An evocation of the people and events that made Paris during the Second Empire extraordinary discusses the furor over Manet's Olympia, Empress Eugenie's disastrous influence on Napoleon, Manet's portraits of Berthe Morisot, and more. National ad/promo. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

A great read!
This is a marvelous book and a great companion to Ross King's "Judgment of Paris".Friedrich's serendipitous approach means one is never sure what he's going to examine next: is this sentence about Offenbach going to lead to a whole exposition of that composer's place in 19th century French music and society?Is Manet's syphilitic condition going to be mentioned in passing or is the author going to expound on the origins of the disease, its treatments at the time and its ghastly symptoms, pre antibiotics?Friedrich is hardly attention-deficit though, he treats each subject with due care and unearths all kinds of interesting historical tidbits.Manet is the connecting theme throughout and his life is examined closely as are the travails and triumphs of his impressionist followers: Degas, Morisot, Monet, Pissarro at al.Highly recommended.

Frothy, Fizzy and Disposable
Reading about France and particularly Paris in the 19th century is about as much fun as you can have with history.There is Napoleon, Louis Philippe, the great novelists like Flaubert and Hugo, the Revolution of 1848 which aided and abetted Marxism and then there is the deliciously ridiculous Louis Napoleon and his twenty year "empire."Think Schwarzenegger as an American dictator and maybe you get close to the second Napoleon era.

But with impressionism and in particular, Edward Manet we have the clear stirrings of modernism and Friedrich takes that as his subject.Or so it seems.The question of modernism is clearly raised but hardly tackled and Manet comes somewhat alive in these pages as do many other people but not really the history.Its as if the people are characters in a historical drama but the sets are crudely painted cardboard.This a romp through a colorful, eventful period and nothing more.

I found Ross King's "The Judgement of Paris" which covers similar ground, much more compelling because he grounded his narrative in a conflict between Manet and Meissonier which made not just the personalities but the events described come alive.He also did much better at conveying the horror of the Prussian siege of Paris during 1871.

A user friendly history
This book is a fascinating and fun read about the people and culture of Manet's time.It may not be for someone looking for technical historical accuracy or for an indepth review of Manet the artist, but if you're looking to learn about this period of time and enjoy the ride, this one's for you.

the People Magazine version
This book is mostly a collection of spicy anecdotes, with a little historical narrative thrown in. If you're looking for any kind of in-depth analysis of the era, or of Manet's art, look elsewhere; if you want a light read, it's OK.

A flawed history of a fascinating time.
Paris during the reign of Louis Napoleon was a fascinating period, and its figures were larger than life: Napoleon, Eugenie, Berlioz, Wagner, Hugo, Zola, Manet, Monet and the "great horizontals".Americans, English, Germans, Italians and Russians went to Paris for culture, art and, let's face it, a little bit of sex.Unfortunately, this period needs a first-rate historian and Otto Friedrich is not that.You read "Olympia" in spite of the writer, as the history of a fascinating time and the men and women who made it great. ... Read more