DOI issue:
Nr. 2
DOI article:Ewing, Campbell: Liszt's involvement in Manet's gypsy images
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.51715#0131
attention from his face to his legs, in this context
invested with a musical supplément.
I hâve directed attention in this article onto Man-
et’s interest in representing Gypsy musicians, arguing
that his works in this genre reflect his knowledge of
and response to Franz Liszt’s book Des Bohémiens et
de leur musique en Hongrie. His first artwork of this
type was the unpublished print known as The LTttle
Gypsies. This important print was created well before
the motif was converted into a painting and as I hâve
shown it was the first place for experiments with
innovatory stylistic features which later were taken
up in his painting. As early as 1925, Léon Rosenthal
argued Manet feit free to develop the implications
of innovative subject matter in his printmaking. The
allusion to art being made in the open air and to sen-
sations captured in the moment first occurs in this
print. As Rosenthal says, "Thegraphie composition and its
execution are ail determined by the desire togive an impression
of ‘instantaneity’”,46 Rosenthalacknowledges here the
priority of Manet’s print-making in the development
of the aesthetic goals of Impressionist painting. It
continues to be voiced by print scholars despite being
largely ignored in the major rétrospective accounts
of that movement. For instance Jean Leymarie and
Michel Melot claim “a significant corrélation between the
renewal of the original print and the birth of the modem
vision, of the Impressionist vision. Adl stylistic aspects right
up to the vibration of colour can be transferred or discerned,
specifically at the intimate level of theprintedplate, sometimes
earlier and in a more décisive fashion than in painting?"11
Manet’s first tentative steps in that direction can be
seen in this print. The artist thought through issues
about the relation of drawing to painting in a print
that demonstrates his ability to transpose ideas about
music propounded by Liszt.
47 LEYMARIE, J. — MELOT, M.: Les gravures des impressionnistes:
Manet, Pissarro, Renoir, Cepanne, Sisley. Paris 1971, p. VI.
ROSENTHAL, L.: Manet, aquafortiste et lithographe. Paris 1925,
p. 148.
123
invested with a musical supplément.
I hâve directed attention in this article onto Man-
et’s interest in representing Gypsy musicians, arguing
that his works in this genre reflect his knowledge of
and response to Franz Liszt’s book Des Bohémiens et
de leur musique en Hongrie. His first artwork of this
type was the unpublished print known as The LTttle
Gypsies. This important print was created well before
the motif was converted into a painting and as I hâve
shown it was the first place for experiments with
innovatory stylistic features which later were taken
up in his painting. As early as 1925, Léon Rosenthal
argued Manet feit free to develop the implications
of innovative subject matter in his printmaking. The
allusion to art being made in the open air and to sen-
sations captured in the moment first occurs in this
print. As Rosenthal says, "Thegraphie composition and its
execution are ail determined by the desire togive an impression
of ‘instantaneity’”,46 Rosenthalacknowledges here the
priority of Manet’s print-making in the development
of the aesthetic goals of Impressionist painting. It
continues to be voiced by print scholars despite being
largely ignored in the major rétrospective accounts
of that movement. For instance Jean Leymarie and
Michel Melot claim “a significant corrélation between the
renewal of the original print and the birth of the modem
vision, of the Impressionist vision. Adl stylistic aspects right
up to the vibration of colour can be transferred or discerned,
specifically at the intimate level of theprintedplate, sometimes
earlier and in a more décisive fashion than in painting?"11
Manet’s first tentative steps in that direction can be
seen in this print. The artist thought through issues
about the relation of drawing to painting in a print
that demonstrates his ability to transpose ideas about
music propounded by Liszt.
47 LEYMARIE, J. — MELOT, M.: Les gravures des impressionnistes:
Manet, Pissarro, Renoir, Cepanne, Sisley. Paris 1971, p. VI.
ROSENTHAL, L.: Manet, aquafortiste et lithographe. Paris 1925,
p. 148.
123