Edouard Manet – Impressionist Painters

Ahh! Edouard Manet, the master of feeling color, emotion, and style! He was once known to have said; ¨Black is not a color!¨ ¨Color is a matter of taste and of sensitivity.¨ This artist was one of the few radical painters in the 19th century who joined together and went against the traditional painting styles of the 19th century. He was one of the great masters of the Impressionist movement.

Born in 1838 to a wealthy family, and fortunately for us did not live up to his families expectations. He traveled extensively in his youth and eventually ended up in Germany, Italy and the Netherlands from 1853 to 1856 where he studied under Frans Hals, Diego Velazques, and Francisco Jose de Goya, where he began to exploit and experience his own creativity and inspiration. At the end of this period he opened his own studio, and became noted and in some cases ¨denoted¨ for his extreme use of color, loose brush strokes, and simplification.

Edourd Manet is best noted for paintings like Luncheon on the Grass, which was rejected by the Paris Salon from being exhibited in 1863. The painting was exhibited at the Salon des refuses, or the Salon of the rejected, where most impressionist paintings were exhibited. In fact, over 4000 paintings from impressionist painters had to be exhibited in this salon, as they were just too controversial for the period.