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Bareau, Juliet Wilson
(Author)
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Edouard Manet was one of the founders of impressionism and of the new naturalism in painting. With pictures like the "Absinthe Drinkers" and the famous "Dejeuner sur l'Herbe"---a naked woman picnicking in the woods with three fully dressed men---he caused a storm of criticism. In 1863, together with his friends Monet, Renoir, Sisley, and Pissarro, he led the influential Salon des Refuses (Salon of the Rejected), which ushered in the new style of impressionism. Strongly influenced by the Venetian Renaissance masters Giorgione and Titian, but even more by the Spanish tradition of Velazquez and Goya, he was thoroughly aware of the traditions of the past. Yet, he was one of the great innovators in painting, in subject matter as well as in technique.
Manet's later years were marred by ill health. For him, official recognition came too late; he died at the age of 51, a disappointed man. Among his later great paintings are "In the Conservatory" and "The Bar" at the Folies-Bergeres.
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