International studio (56.1915)

The Paris Salon of Fifty Years Ago

connection between

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mother.” He was scrupulously correct in his dress,
and it was in some measure owing to his example
that artists commenced to dress like ordinary men
of the world. When, in 1915, we observe an artist
wearing a velvet coat and slouch hat, we set him
down as one who has to bolster up his reputation
by other means than his artistic productions !
Manet went “ right through the mill ” in the
sixties. Beginning with 1859 he was rejected four
times and accepted thrice. He was fully per-
suaded, however, that if the public came to know
his work it would be well received, at least by some,
so he persevered and, like Whistler, did everything
he could to let his pictures be publicly exhibited.

of a Gipsy man and a Gipsy woman; while the
Water Drinker was 22x19 inches. It is described
as “ A boy in his shirt-sleeves seen in profile turned
towards the left, holding in his uplifted arms a
vessel full of water; his head thrown back and his
mouth open, a stream of water pouring out of the
vessel into his mouth.”
The sketch of Two Spanish Dancers was done
from Spaniards visiting Paris, and the date,
“ 2, Avril, 1865,” on the sheet, shows that it was made
four months before Manet’s only visit to Madrid
in the autumn of that year. For long Manet was
attracted to the art of Spain and to its people, and
in some strong points there is
his painting and that of
both Velasquez and Murillo,
however different they may
apparently be. The re¬
maining figure on the sheet
is Lola de Valence, a cele¬
brated Spanish dancer, who
was popular in France for
years, and Manet painted
her portrait several times.
The fifty years that have
passed since Edouard
Manet painted have
scarcely availed to reconcile
the ordinary public to his
pictures. When they were
first exhibited, M. Theodore
Duret says (and M. Duret
is the much honoured
living link between the
pioneers of the early days
and our own time, and was
the personal friend of
Manet and Whistler) in his
brilliant biography of the
artist, that “ Manet’s pic¬
tures had the same sort of
violent fascination for the
visitor to the Salon that a
red rag has for a bull, or a
mirror for larks.”
Manet’s honesty was
doubted and his sincerity,
which was well marked to
his friends, was never ac¬
cepted bythe public. Inper¬
son, however, he was a man
of polished manners and
blameless life “who lived
soberly with his wife and

sketches: “water drinker”; “two Spanish dancers,” and “ lola de
VALENCE.” BY EDOUARD MANET