Modern Beauty by Manet
July 09, 2019Modern Beauty by Manet: the Art Institute of Chicago’s current exhibition of Edouard Manet’s last paintings. The modern beauty evident in these paintings focuses on his appreciation of women, and his style. Both of which were ahead of their time.
So, while we were in Chicago, celebrating my son’s wedding, my mother, Manny, and I spent part of an afternoon, taking them in. The art exhibition progresses from a famous boating scene to portraits of friends and patrons. The modern beauty on display refers in part to Manet’s paintings of one woman representing spring and another woman representing winter. Later in the exhibition, another modern beauty consists of a charcoal drawing of Edgar Allan Poe’s Annabel Lee lying fully dressed and prone on a seashore. She reaches for waves beyond her fingertips.
The perspective changes as the show leads the viewer closer to the artist’s end. In 1883, at fifty-one, Edouard Manet died of syphilis.
Confusing Claude Monet with Edouard Manet
Apparently people sometimes confuse Claude Monet and Edouard Manet. I’ve read this more than once. And while I consider myself a person who’s confused more often than most, I cannot recall ever being confused by the two artists. Obviously, their surnames are similar. They were both French. And they both lived and painted at the end of the nineteenth century. But their art strikes me as wildly different.
For me, this difference is visceral. Because Monet’s haystack paintings terrified me as a child. Claude—not Edouard!—painted twenty-five haystack paintings. And the Art Institute of Chicago owns six of them. During my childhood (and well beyond), encountering all six of those haystack paintings in a small, dark room was nightmarish. So that even now, I’m unable to appreciate the haystacks in their changing light. Or different seasons. Let alone the infinite, minuscule brush strokes. I recoil in fear at Monet. But I love Manet. However, I know very little about art, except what I see and sometimes feel–and so bow to the many accomplished artists and art lovers, who deem those infernal haystacks inspired and inspirational.
New Appreciation for Manet’s Modern Beauty
Born to a wealthy family, Manet enjoyed the friendship of most of that era’s famous artists and writers. In fact, they looked to him as a leader. But for a brief early success, his work was roundly rejected. The make-or-break Salon jury mocked his “playfulness.” Judges found his abrupt tonal transitions “appalling.” Finally, with this show, a 136 years after he died–Modern Beauty by Manet–critics hail his end-of-life paintings as moving, modern, beautiful, and intimate.
I’ve included the photo peach Manet’s peaches because in the museum, moving from room to room, they captivated me. Their delectable ripeness carries all the promise of sweet, sweet juice dripping from your mouth. And, I’ve included the white lilacs—because they’re lilacs. And in my experience, white lilacs smell the same the purple ones.