A Modern Portrait of Edouard Manet Quiz

Answer: False

The painting depicts a completely nude woman and a scantily dressed female bather on a picnic with two fully dressed men in what appears to be a rural setting. It was rejected by the Salon de Paris, a prestigious art exhibition. Manet then exhibited it in the 1863 Salon des Refusés ("exhibition of rejects").

The painting was the subject of considerable criticism, as many found it confusing and scandalous. Specifically, many viewers were shocked by the casual juxtaposition between a nude and a nearly nude woman with two men in formal dress and could not understand what they were supposed to be doing or what the scene means. Additionally, the composition of the painting is unusual as the woman in the background is too large compared to the figures in the foreground and the way the background is painted gives an impression of a lack of depth, as if the figures are actually in a studio rather than outdoors. On the other hand, the novelist Émile Zola praised the painting as Manet's greatest work.

He mocked those who were scandalized by the depiction of a nude woman sitting with fully clothed men by pointing out that many classic paintings by old masters depict scenes that contain both clothed and nude figures. For example, "The Pastoral Concert," a 1509 work attributed to the Italian Renaissance master Titian, depicts a nude woman standing near three figures sitting on grass, two of whom are clothed men while the other is a nude woman. Manet's painting in turn inspired Claude Monet and Paul Cezanne to create paintings with the same title depicting similar themes, as well as inspiring many works by other artists, including Paul Gauguin and Pablo Picasso.

Answer: The reclining woman appears to be a prostitute

"Olympia" provoked even more scandal than "Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe" (The Luncheon on the Grass) and critics condemned it as "immoral" and "vulgar." Viewers of the painting were shocked by Olympia's confrontational gaze and the fact that several details in the painting, such as the orchid in her hair, her bracelet, pearl earrings, and the oriental shawl on which she lies, were items typically associated with expensive prostitutes. Additionally, it has been suggested that the black cat is a symbol of nocturnal promiscuity, and in French, "chatte" (cat) is slang for female genitalia.

The nude woman was modelled by Victorine Meurent, who was well known in Paris as an artist's model and was an accomplished painter in her own right. She also modelled for "Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe." The servant woman was a model named Laure, who appeared in several other Manet paintings, including a portrait called "La Négresse." Although racial prejudice was prevalent in France at the time, black people were depicted in a number of noted works.

For example, Léon Benouville's 1844 painting, "Esther with Odalisque," depicts a nude white female with a black female servant. "Olympia" was inspired by several old masters depicting reclining nudes, especially Titian's "Venus of Urbino," which contrasts two fully clothed servants in the background with a completely nude woman in the foreground. However, artists were generally expected to draw inspiration from old masters. Part of what made Manet's painting shocking was its departure from classical conventions. For example, rather than depicting a goddess from classical mythology, as in Titian's painting, Manet chose to depict a woman with a somewhat less respectable but more realistic profession.

Answer: Claude Monet

Manet produced this painting, "Claude Monet Painting in his Studio," one of several portraits of his friend Monet, during a summer spent with the artist's family. Monet lived in a village on the right bank of the Seine river near Paris from 1871 to 1878. During this period, Monet enjoyed working from an old boat from which he observed the light on the Seine. Monet acknowledged Manet as an influence on his own style and in turn painted several portraits of Manet and his wife from his boat.

Answer: Blonde Woman with Bare Breasts

The title of the work, "La Blonde aux seins nus" (Blonde Woman with Bare Breasts) is a little puzzling, as the subject's hair is clearly not blonde but brunette. The painting is notable for the use of light to accentuate the pink and white tones of the model's breasts, while the glow of her skin is set off by the pale green background. The model's name was Marguerite, and she also posed for Manet's 1878 painting, "At the Toilet. Woman Fastening Her Garter," and Edgar Degas' 1886 painting, "The Tub."

A French film called "La blonde aux seins nus" that involves a plot to steal the painting of the same name was released in 2010 to underwhelming reviews.

Answer: Mexico

Maximilian I was the only Emperor of the short-lived Second Mexican Empire from 10 April 1864 until his execution by firing squad on 19 June 1867, when the republican government of Mexico regained power. He was a younger brother of Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria and was encouraged by Napoleon III to become Emperor of Mexico after the French invaded the country. Manet produced a series of works from 1867 to 1869 depicting Emperor Maximilian's execution, specifically, three large oil paintings, a smaller oil sketch, and a lithograph.

The work in the photo is one of the three large paintings, and is housed in The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Manet was heavily influenced by Goya's "The Third of May 1808," which also famously depicts a firing squad scene.

A distinctive feature of the Boston painting is that the soldiers are depicted wearing clothes and sombreros of Mexican Republicans, whereas in the other versions of the painting they wear 19th-century field dress. Due to the politically sensitive nature of the subject, the paintings could not be exhibited in France during the reign of Napoleon III.

Instead, there were exhibits in New York and Boston in 1879-1880. Two versions of the painting, including the Boston version, were finally exhibited in France in 1905 at the Salon d'Automne (an annual art exhibition).

Answer: In a shop window on a main street of Paris

The painting depicts an attractive young woman who is partially undressed looking at the viewer, standing in what appears to be a boudoir. A man in formal dress sits to her side. Based on these details and the title of the painting ("Nana" was a popular alias for female prostitutes during the latter half of the 19th century), it appears that the woman is a courtesan with a waiting client. Like the subject of "Olympia," the woman in this painting looks boldly at the viewer without any apparent sense of shame.

This was too scandalous for the conservative Salon de Paris, who thought it disrespected social mores. Hence, Manet chose to show it in the window of a trinket shop on the Boulevard des Capucines, a major thoroughfare in Paris. The painting attracted considerable attention because of Manet's fame at the time.

Answer: Absinthe

Absinthe, or absinth, is an extremely potent anise-flavoured spirit made with wormwood, green anise, sweet fennel, and other medicinal and culinary herbs. It became a highly popular alcoholic drink in late 19th- and early 20th-century France, particularly among Parisian artists and writers, and became associated with Bohemian culture.

Despite or perhaps because of its popularity, it also became associated with moral degeneracy and there is a widespread myth that persists to this day that drinking absinthe causes hallucinatory visions, including that of the Green Fairy itself, which was also the name of a popular brand of the drink.

The painting is aptly called, "The Absinthe Drinker" and the subject is a man named Collardet, who frequented an area around the Louvre in Paris where the studio of Manet's art teacher, Thomas Couture, was located.

He is shown wearing a top hat and wrapped in a cloak like an aristocrat, even though he was a poor rag-picker, that is, someone who made their living sorting through scraps of garbage looking for recyclable materials. An empty bottle is shown at his feet, while a glass of absinthe sits on the ledge next to him, although this final detail was a later addition.

When Manet showed it to his former teacher, the latter expressed distaste at the subject matter, declaring that Manet had lost his moral sense. Manet attempted to submit the painting to the 1859 Salon de Paris, who rejected it. The painting was one of the earliest depictions of absinthe in art and the Salon might have considered it morally objectionable for this reason.

Answer: Sister-in-law

Berthe Morisot was described by Gustave Geffroy in 1894 as one of "les trois grandes dames" (the three grand ladies) of Impressionism alongside Marie Bracquemond and Mary Cassatt. Morisot met Manet in 1868, and they became close friends. Manet regarded her as one of his favorite models, and they had a mutual influence on each other's work. Manet introduced her to his younger brother Eugène, whom she married in 1874.

The painting in the photo is called, "Berthe Morisot with a Bouquet of Violets" and is alternatively known as "Berthe Morisot in a black hat." It depicts her in black mourning dress, with a barely visible bouquet of violets.

Interestingly, Manet painted her eyes black even though they were green, and the painting is largely a study in shades of black. Manet made a similar painting of Morisot in mourning dress in 1874, after the death of her father, Edmé Tiburce Morisot.

The 1872 work was acclaimed by contemporaries as a masterpiece and remains one of Manet's most recognizable paintings.

Answer: Battle of Cherbourg

Although this battle was part of the American Civil War, it was fought off the French coast near the port of Cherbourg, where the CSS Alabama had recently docked. It was witnessed by hundreds of people on the coast. Manet, who had served in the French navy as a teenager, did not witness the battle himself, so he relied on press descriptions to build up an image of the scene.

The painting shows the CSS Alabama sinking from her stern, as clouds of smoke arise from a direct hit to her engines by the U.S.S. Kearsarge, which is mostly obscured from view.

He completed the painting, his first maritime work, within a month of the battle, and it was displayed in the window of Alfred Cadart's print shop in Paris in July 1864. Additionally, he painted a portrait of the Kearsarge that was docked in the nearby port of Boulogne after the battle.

Answer: True

Painted in 1882, a year before his untimely death, Manet made preparatory sketches in the Folies-Bergère itself but did the actual painting in his studio in which he set up a model of the bar. The woman in the painting was named Suzon, who was one of the actual barmaids employed there.

The painting shows a mirror behind the barmaid that depicts a lively scene at this popular Parisian nightclub. Although the barmaid appears to be painted from a viewpoint directly opposite her, the mirror also shows a reflection of her back at a 45-degree angle and she appears to be directly facing a customer reflected in the mirror, which creates a visual inconsistency that is difficult to explain.

Some critics went as far as accusing Manet of not understanding perspective.

However, an Australian art historian, Dr. Malcolm Park, physically reconstructed the bar scene and showed that Manet's scene could be recreated when viewed from the correct angle. Specifically, although the barmaid appears to be standing parallel to the bar and directly facing the customer, this is an optical trick. By positioning the barmaid so that she was standing slightly at an angle to the bar, while the customer was actually standing to the left of the bar and facing away from her, the scene could be viewed in such a way as to create an image in the mirror in which the barmaid and the customer appear to be facing each other, even though they are not.

Hence, Manet's critics are refuted as he is shown to have been a master of perspectival realism.