DOI Heft:
No. 94 (January, 1901)
DOI Artikel:Proust, Antonin: The art of Edouard Manet
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19786#0264
Edouard Manet
"LB TORERO MORT" BY EDOUARD MANET
which has made Manet one of the most notable
artistic figures of this century, let me mention his
much-abused picture of the fight between the
" Kearsage " and the "Alabama." Ridicule was cast
upon it; yet is there a picture, old or new, in
which the sea has been reproduced so amply ?
And what a delight it is for those who are capable
of enjoying painting as painting, and of separating
it from all rhetorical prejudices and all the pre-
tentious reflections of literature !
Chatting with me one night in his studio in the
Rue d'Amsterdam, Manet began to talk of all the
adverse criticisms with which for twenty years he
had been assailed whenever he had exhibited,
whether in the Salon, or in the building erected at
his expense in 1867 at the end of the Pont de
l'Alma, or in the Rue de St. Pe'tersbourg Gallery.
It was in 1882, Manet was already suffering from the
disease which was to carry him off in the following
year. " This war to the knife," said he, " has done
me much harm. I have suffered from it greatly,
but it has whipped me up. I would not wish that
any artist should be praised and beslavered at the
outset, for that means the annihilation of his
personality." Then he added, with a smile, "The
fools! They were for ever telling me my work
was unequal; that was the highest praise they
could bestow. Yet, it was always my ambition
to rise—not to remain on a certain level, not to
remake one day what I had made the day
before, but to be inspired again and again by a
new aspect of things, to strike frequently a fresh
236
note. Ah ! I'm before my time. A hundred years
hence people will be happier, for their sight will be
clearer than ours to-day."
A long silence followed, and as we parted, Manet
said to me, as he often said, "You know, my work
must be seen in its entirety. If I should vanish, I
beg you not to let me go bit by bit into the public
collections, for people would judge me ill."
My friend died in the following year. A few
months after his death we organised a complete
exhibition of his works in the Ecole des Beaux-
Arts. A few years later (in 1889) I was able to
repeat the display at the Champ de Mars, and
then, as in 1883, it was truly an apotheosis.
Antonin Proust.
Mr. Moffat Lindner's water-colours of Dordrecht
and Bergen, which are being exhibited at Mr.
Dunthorne's Gallery, and Mr. Albert Goodwin's
pictures and drawings, shown by the Fine Art
Society, may be singled out for notice as two of
the pleasantest collections of poetic landscape* that
have been presented this winter. Mr. Lindner's
dainty technical method and graceful sense 01
design always make his productions attractive, and
his feeling for atmospheric colour is delightful.
Mr. Goodwin is more deeply imaginative, and
applies his exquisite craftsmanship to more varied
material, but he shares with Mr. Lindner a deli-
cacy of observation and a sense of appropriateness
that are expressed with perfect discretion.
"LB TORERO MORT" BY EDOUARD MANET
which has made Manet one of the most notable
artistic figures of this century, let me mention his
much-abused picture of the fight between the
" Kearsage " and the "Alabama." Ridicule was cast
upon it; yet is there a picture, old or new, in
which the sea has been reproduced so amply ?
And what a delight it is for those who are capable
of enjoying painting as painting, and of separating
it from all rhetorical prejudices and all the pre-
tentious reflections of literature !
Chatting with me one night in his studio in the
Rue d'Amsterdam, Manet began to talk of all the
adverse criticisms with which for twenty years he
had been assailed whenever he had exhibited,
whether in the Salon, or in the building erected at
his expense in 1867 at the end of the Pont de
l'Alma, or in the Rue de St. Pe'tersbourg Gallery.
It was in 1882, Manet was already suffering from the
disease which was to carry him off in the following
year. " This war to the knife," said he, " has done
me much harm. I have suffered from it greatly,
but it has whipped me up. I would not wish that
any artist should be praised and beslavered at the
outset, for that means the annihilation of his
personality." Then he added, with a smile, "The
fools! They were for ever telling me my work
was unequal; that was the highest praise they
could bestow. Yet, it was always my ambition
to rise—not to remain on a certain level, not to
remake one day what I had made the day
before, but to be inspired again and again by a
new aspect of things, to strike frequently a fresh
236
note. Ah ! I'm before my time. A hundred years
hence people will be happier, for their sight will be
clearer than ours to-day."
A long silence followed, and as we parted, Manet
said to me, as he often said, "You know, my work
must be seen in its entirety. If I should vanish, I
beg you not to let me go bit by bit into the public
collections, for people would judge me ill."
My friend died in the following year. A few
months after his death we organised a complete
exhibition of his works in the Ecole des Beaux-
Arts. A few years later (in 1889) I was able to
repeat the display at the Champ de Mars, and
then, as in 1883, it was truly an apotheosis.
Antonin Proust.
Mr. Moffat Lindner's water-colours of Dordrecht
and Bergen, which are being exhibited at Mr.
Dunthorne's Gallery, and Mr. Albert Goodwin's
pictures and drawings, shown by the Fine Art
Society, may be singled out for notice as two of
the pleasantest collections of poetic landscape* that
have been presented this winter. Mr. Lindner's
dainty technical method and graceful sense 01
design always make his productions attractive, and
his feeling for atmospheric colour is delightful.
Mr. Goodwin is more deeply imaginative, and
applies his exquisite craftsmanship to more varied
material, but he shares with Mr. Lindner a deli-
cacy of observation and a sense of appropriateness
that are expressed with perfect discretion.