Despite occasionally being described as the godfather of Impressionism, Edouard Manet was never known to have thrown a hand grenade into the Cafe Guerbois (The Gerbil Cafe) or to have taken out a contract on Degas, although he did once put a horse's head in Pissarro's napsack (but that was just lunch).
Edouard was born into a wealthy family of Parisian 'borejoys' but failed to enter careers in the law and navy because he was too thick (or too smart). After attending art school he began contravening artistic convention by painting scenes of 'everyday life' (yes, radical and scary) and in 1863 he exhibited 'Dejeuner sur L'herbe', his famous painting of two fully-clothed men having a picnic with a couple of naked air hostesses (the woods round his way were teeming with that sort of thing). This ground-breaking picture, also known as 'Luncheon on the Grass' (or, 'Tell Us Where You've Hidden The Mayonnaise And We'll Give You Your Clothes Back') caused one group of hot-blooded painters to react in a manner that only young men can, in addition to which they formed the group of artists known as the Impressionists.
Two years later, Edouard's 'Olympia', a nude in the style of Titian's 'Venus', caused such a kerfuffle that it had to be hung extra high up, well out of reach of angry umbrellas, cantankerous canes (and slobbering perverts). In 1874 the Impressionists held their first show at Nadar's gallery but Edouard acted like a right frog-in-a-manger and refused to contribute a single picture. In the same year he had lots of fun painting 'en plein air' and pretending to be Claude Monet. In 1881 he was awarded a Legion of Honor. He died in 1883, after losing his leg.
Bar at the Folies Bergere
Edouard Manet
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Olympia, 1863
Edouard Manet
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Bar, Folies
Edouard Manet
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The Balcony, 1868
Edouard Manet
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Le Dejeuner sur LHerbe
Edouard Manet
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Luncheon On The Grass
Edouard Manet
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The Fifer 1866
Edouard Manet
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Study For The Escape From Rochefort
Edouard Manet
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The Italian
Edouard Manet
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Flowers In A Crystal Vase
Edouard Manet
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Study For Polichinelle (Punchinello)
Edouard Manet
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The Execution of the Emperor Maximilian, 1867
Edouard Manet
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Frühstück im Gras
Edouard Manet
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Masked Ball at the Opera
Edouard Manet
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Dejeuner sur l'Herbe, 1863
Edouard Manet
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The Bench, The Garden At Versailles
Edouard Manet
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Self Portrait With A Palette
Edouard Manet
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The Anatomy Lesson, Circa 1856
Edouard Manet
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Boy Blowing Bubbles, 1867
Edouard Manet
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The Lady with the fans
Edouard Manet
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Vase with peonies on a pedestal
Edouard Manet
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The Blonde with Bare Breasts 1878
Edouard Manet
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Berthe Morisot
Edouard Manet
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The Lady with the fans
Edouard Manet
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Berthe Morisot with a Bouquet of Violets 1872
Edouard Manet
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Portrait of Mery Laurent 1882
Edouard Manet
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Basket of Fruit
Edouard Manet
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On the Beach 1873
Edouard Manet
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Reading 1865
Edouard Manet
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Asparagus 1880
Edouard Manet
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Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe
Edouard Manet
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