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Welcome to Great Art. For the past
few years, we've been filming

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the biggest exhibitions in the world

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about some of the greatest artists
and art in history.

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Not only do we record
these landmark shows,

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but we also secure privileged access
behind the scenes

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of the galleries
and museums concerned.

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We then use the exhibition
as a springboard

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to take a broader look.

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In this film we focus
on the first-ever exhibition

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devoted to the portraits
of the pre-eminent

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19th century French painter
and pioneering impressionist

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Edouard Manet.

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Called Manet: Portraying Life,

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it was held here at the Royal Academy
of Arts in London.

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On occasion, the Impressionist
painters we know so well -

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Renoir, Monet, Degas,
Pissarro and so on -

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suffer a little from being
all grouped together

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as if they were an interchangeable
all-painting mass.

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The truth is that they were all very
different personalities and very
different painters.

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But one of the things they did share
was an enormous respect

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for the creativity and innovation
of Edouard Manet,

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a painter now considered by many
to be the father of modern art.

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This compelling show held at the
Royal Academy illustrated why

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and allowed us
to look afresh at this great artist.

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We'll be exploring
all aspects of the exhibition,

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combining an analysis and discussion
with specially-invited guests,

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along with an exclusive
behind-the-scenes look

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at how the exhibition came together.

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We'll also be exploring Manet's life

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and looking at how he himself
viewed his work.

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Manet is, in many ways,
misunderstood.

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Frequently labelled an Impressionist,

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he never considered himself
part of the group.

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He was first and foremost
a painter of the modern world,

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of the rapid-evolving city
of 19th-century Paris

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and the people he knew in it.

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His family, his friends
and acquaintances.

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What this exhibition celebrates
is how Manet managed

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to transform the portrait
into a means of delving deeper

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into the world in which he lived.

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With work spanning his entire career,
Manet: Portraying Life

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is the first-ever exhibition devoted
to the portraiture of Edouard Manet.

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The exhibition is a collaboration
between the Royal Academy

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of Arts in London and the Toledo
Museum of Art in Ohio,

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and was five years in the making.

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It consists of more than 50 paintings

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arranged over a series
of themed rooms...

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..and sets out to establish the ways
in which Manet combined the portrait

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with images that depicted
the modern world,

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translating his sitters into actors
in scenes from contemporary life.

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I have no doubt in my mind

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that Manet is one of THE great
artists of the Western tradition...

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..both as a maker of images

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and as a practitioner -

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the actual making of the art -

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and also, I think,
as a radical thinker.

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He really goes back
and rethinks and questions

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what his art can do
and what it can contribute.

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He was a genius.

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And I don't use that word loosely.
He certainly had the self-confidence

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and the nerve to proceed

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in the face of great criticism.

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He didn't have to earn money
making painting,

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he was from a family that had means,

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but he had, as Kandinsky would say,

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the inner compulsion to create.

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Edouard Manet is one of THE most

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enigmatic figures
in the history of art.

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We may think we know him -
a painter of radical images,

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of nudes that shocked his world,
as the father of Impressionism,

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the first emphatically modern artist
-

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but the reality
is far more complicated.

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What is not in doubt is that Manet

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was one of the greatest artists
that ever lived,

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someone who pushed the boundaries
of what art could do.

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What he set out to do -

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in terms of a radical rethinking
about technique,

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a blurring of the genres,

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the pursuit of new,

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in some ways,
ways of depicting subject matter -

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made him very much
the father of modern art.

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Now, I'm joined by the co-curator
of the exhibition

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MaryAnne Stevens
from the Royal Academy.

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Standing in front of a late
self-portrait by the man himself.

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MaryAnne, why is Manet
a modern artist?

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What makes him the father
of modern art, do you think?

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I think when you're looking
at even something like this,

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you find yourself thinking,

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'He started with no preconception.'

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He himself said that he started
every single subject

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as if he had never seen
that particular subject before.

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And he goes absolutely
back to square one

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and builds up the painting
according to the demands

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of the relationship between him,
the subject and the way

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the paint goes on the surface
of the canvas.

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Now, from my perspective,

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that's an incredibly risky
approach to take.

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But what's fascinating
is that the risk is there

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and you feel with each painting,
he pushes it to the limit,

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but he doesn't quite
fall off the precipice.

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Something just holds it back.

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Which brings us to the thesis of the
show - Manet and portraiture.

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You're saying he treats portraiture
in a totally different way.

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He blurs distinction
between portraiture

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and what is broadly
called genre painting.

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Yes. I mean, the real argument
of the show is, first of all,

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it started with the notion
that nobody had done

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an exhibition about
Manet as a portraitist

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and yet he painted portraits
from his very early years,

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right the way through to the point
at which he dies in early 1883.

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If he's going to paint
the contemporary world,

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modernity,

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he has to paint people who are real
in it, in his paintings.

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He just can't conjure up anybody who
might have walked off the street.

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He needs to know who they are.

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So, he uses the people
that he's painted in portraits -

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his family, his friends,
his models on a regular basis -

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and he transposes them and turns
them

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into actors in his scenes
of contemporary life.

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So, for him, portraiture

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is only occasionally
in and of itself interesting.

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In a way, it opens the gate

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to a different way
of looking and seeing.

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It forces him to do things
he wouldn't otherwise do.

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It forces him to do things
that he wouldn't otherwise do

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and I think it also forces him,
but he accepts it very willingly,

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to absolutely rethink
what is meant by portraiture.

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And that, again, is him
pushing the boundaries

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as he does in so much else
in his art.

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All of which will reveal itself
throughout that exhibition.

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Thank you very much.
We're now going to take a look

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behind the scenes and find out more

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about how the exhibition
itself came together.

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When curating an exhibition
which involves, of course,

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the argument of the exhibition
being determined,

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the selection of works
to support that argument

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on the walls of the exhibition
galleries being determined,

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the next stage has to be,

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'How is it going to work
within the spaces themselves?'

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There's a bit of virgin territory
there.

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Given that we work here
at the Royal Academy

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with fixed galleries -

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these were built
in the mid-19th century -

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we really have to work with them
rather than against them.

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If you've got the...
(INDISTINCT SPEECH)

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'So you think very carefully
in terms of chapters.'

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Each chapter being determined by the
spaces, each gallery space.

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And it's at that stage that you
enter

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into a conversation with the
designer.

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Basically laying out the argument
of the exhibition,

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laying out why you've selected
the works that you have

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for each of the spaces,
and then beginning

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the process of 'Will they fit?
How will they hang on the walls?

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What colour you will paint the
walls.

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How you will orchestrate
the passage of the visitor

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from the beginning of the exhibition
to the end of the exhibition.'

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On 23rd January 1832,

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Edouard Manet was born
in the heart of Paris,

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here in his parent's comfortable
second-floor apartment.

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His family was upper-middle class.
Wealthy and well connected.

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Manet's father
was a senior civil servant

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in the Ministry of Justice
and rose to become a judge.

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Manet's mother was the daughter
of a diplomat.

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The young Manet struggled at school
and was easily distracted.

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An uncle, seeing that Edouard
was interested in art,

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tried to help matters
by paying for drawing lessons

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and taking him to the art galleries
in the Louvre.

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By his mid-teens,
Manet had firmly declared

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his desire to become an artist.

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But his father wanted him
to follow in his legal footsteps,

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something Edouard
stubbornly resisted.

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So, instead, a third option
was proposed -

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he could try for a career
in the French Navy.

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Manet's going to sea

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was a kind of compromise
on the part of the family.

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It was obvious that he wasn't
going to study law.

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And they hoped
that he would go into the navy,

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but he failed the entrance exam.

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So there was a kind of way
of getting into the navy

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by either going
into the merchant navy

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or, as it turns out,
sailing south of the equator.

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So he got a position as a sailor
on a boat that was going to Rio.

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And he was very seasick at first
and then very, very, very bored.

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So it wasn't a passion.
He loved the sea,

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but it was more about his family
forcing a kind of gap year on him,

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so that he could decide
what he was going to do.

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Shortly after his return from sea,
in June 1849,

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when he was still only 17 years old,

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Manet met the woman
who was to become his wife.

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Suzanne Leenhoff was a 19-year-old
Dutch piano tutor

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employed by the Manet household.

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And, at some point
in the winter of 1849,

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Edouard and Suzanne
began a relationship.

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And back in the first gallery
of the exhibition,

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in a room exploring portraits
of Manet's family,

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is Suzanne Leenhoff -
shown here at the piano in 1868.

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Manet and Suzanne's relationship
was a complicated one.

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Two years after they met,
she bore a son

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that she called Leon Edouard.

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And many people subsequently
believed that that was Manet's son.

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Manet and Suzanne
did eventually marry,

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but some 14 years
after they'd first met

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and, significantly,
after the death of Manet's father,

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who some believed
was actually Leon's father.

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Now, amidst all this confusion
and complexity,

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one important thing emerges
as far as Manet's art's concerned.

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Namely, that Leon
was an important early model

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featuring in 17 paintings by Manet.

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And it's an image of Leon
that dominates

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the first major work that we're going
to look at - the Luncheon.

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Painted in 1868, the Luncheon
is one of Manet's greatest,

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yet most enigmatic works.

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It's an image dominated
by the figure of Leon.

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Though he stands centre-stage,
his position at the edge

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of a lunch table suggests
his imminent departure,

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that his mind is elsewhere,
reinforced by his distant gaze

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as he stares blankly out
beyond the viewer.

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Around him are a series
of contrived still lives,

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a sword and armour,
oysters and a lemon on the table.

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For a time, Claude Monet
sat as the model

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for the bearded figure at the table

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but, in the end,
another artist took up the job.

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Auguste Rousselin,
a neighbour of the Manet's

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in Boulogne, where they spent
the summer,

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and where this painting
is sought to be located.

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And while the female figure
in the background

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remains unidentified,
the strange disengaged poses

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of all three figures make any kind
of narrative reading of the picture

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very hard to make.

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By 1849, Manet's father
had finally allowed him

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to pursue an artistic career.

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Manet then began six years of study

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in the studio of the painter
Thomas Couture.

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Manet's period in Couture's studio
was very much that of a student.

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It was no longer the kind
of apprenticeship system

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that had prevailed in, say,
Renaissance times.

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And it was definitely about learning
to draw from the model,

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learning to paint
with the supervision of the teacher.

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It was much more like an art school
today would be.

240
00:17:52,520 --> 00:17:54,800
Though a traditionalist
in some respects,

241
00:17:54,800 --> 00:17:56,880
Couture was an interesting mentor

242
00:17:56,880 --> 00:17:59,160
for he had certain
contemporary concerns.

243
00:18:01,640 --> 00:18:05,080
Couture's acknowledged masterpiece
was a large-scale history painting

244
00:18:05,080 --> 00:18:07,400
called The Romans of the Decadence,

245
00:18:07,400 --> 00:18:10,360
in which the debauched
Roman revellers represented

246
00:18:10,360 --> 00:18:14,920
what Couture considered to be
the moral decline in his own day.

247
00:18:14,920 --> 00:18:17,720
It's a big history painting,

248
00:18:17,720 --> 00:18:20,840
but it's about the morals
of the period.

249
00:18:20,840 --> 00:18:24,040
And Manet wants
to be a history painter.

250
00:18:24,040 --> 00:18:28,560
He wants to express, erm,
I mean, the issues of the day.

251
00:18:28,560 --> 00:18:32,960
He wants to turn history painting
into modernity.

252
00:18:35,240 --> 00:18:39,080
Couture encouraged his pupils to find
their own artistic language

253
00:18:39,080 --> 00:18:42,320
rather than slavishly follow
current conventions.

254
00:18:42,320 --> 00:18:44,800
And he stressed the need
for spontaneity

255
00:18:44,800 --> 00:18:46,800
and the rapidly-rendered sketch.

256
00:18:48,040 --> 00:18:51,160
But outside Couture's studio,
another artist was challenging

257
00:18:51,160 --> 00:18:54,280
the conventions of French painting
to an even greater degree.

258
00:19:00,480 --> 00:19:03,800
In 1850, the realist painter
Gustave Courbet

259
00:19:03,800 --> 00:19:09,440
exhibited this monumental work,
Burial At Ornans, at the Paris Salon.

260
00:19:09,440 --> 00:19:12,440
The painting was a manifesto
for a new kind of art,

261
00:19:12,440 --> 00:19:15,480
Realism, a radical movement
that sought to replace

262
00:19:15,480 --> 00:19:19,640
romanticised images from the past
with depictions of ordinary people,

263
00:19:19,640 --> 00:19:22,600
contemporary figures in scenes
from everyday life.

264
00:19:25,200 --> 00:19:27,440
Accordingly, the Salon
was scandalised

265
00:19:27,440 --> 00:19:33,720
and Courbet's position as the leading
avant-garde artist in Paris was
assured.

266
00:19:33,720 --> 00:19:37,280
It was against this backdrop
that Manet emerged.

267
00:19:37,280 --> 00:19:40,200
Without doubt, Manet drew
on the lessons of realism.

268
00:19:40,200 --> 00:19:44,120
But, at the same time, he admired
much of the art of the old masters,

269
00:19:44,120 --> 00:19:47,840
including Dutch art
of the 17th century.

270
00:19:47,840 --> 00:19:51,880
But by far his greatest passion
was for the art of Spain.

271
00:19:51,880 --> 00:19:55,280
For Manet, certain Spanish painting
offered an alternative

272
00:19:55,280 --> 00:19:58,880
to the idealised,
classically-inspired art of Italy.

273
00:19:58,880 --> 00:20:01,280
And the artist he revered
above all others

274
00:20:01,280 --> 00:20:05,240
was Diego Velazquez, who he called
the greatest artist ever.

275
00:20:15,040 --> 00:20:17,280
There are a number of examples
in the exhibition

276
00:20:17,280 --> 00:20:20,040
which show the influence
of Spanish art on Manet.

277
00:20:21,320 --> 00:20:24,960
Works such as the Street Singer,
showing a fashionably-attired woman

278
00:20:24,960 --> 00:20:28,520
emerging from a cafe, clutching
a guitar and eating fruit

279
00:20:28,520 --> 00:20:32,040
owe something to the art of Spain,
both in subject and style.

280
00:20:45,280 --> 00:20:48,000
But it's this work, The Tragic Actor,

281
00:20:48,000 --> 00:20:50,800
that most pointedly
references Spanish painting.

282
00:20:50,800 --> 00:20:53,840
Not least a specific work
by Velazquez himself.

283
00:21:41,800 --> 00:21:44,680
Joining me is the Spanish expert
and chief curator

284
00:21:44,680 --> 00:21:47,800
of Dulwich Picture Gallery,
Dr Xavier Bray.

285
00:21:47,800 --> 00:21:51,440
Now, this is a theatrical portrait
in every sense, isn't it?

286
00:21:51,440 --> 00:21:54,640
It shows the great French
tragic actor Rouviere.

287
00:21:54,640 --> 00:21:57,000
He's playing the role of Hamlet.

288
00:21:57,000 --> 00:21:59,040
He dies, I think,
before it's completed

289
00:21:59,040 --> 00:22:01,200
and Manet has to use
other friends as models.

290
00:22:01,200 --> 00:22:04,440
One for the legs, I think,
one for the main body.

291
00:22:04,440 --> 00:22:08,600
But that's not what really stands out
about his picture.

292
00:22:08,600 --> 00:22:12,480
No. It's a clear homage to Velazquez
and everybody who saw it,

293
00:22:12,480 --> 00:22:15,400
even before it was exhibited
in 1867 at the Salon,

294
00:22:15,400 --> 00:22:19,400
everybody said this owes everything
to Pablo de Valladolid,

295
00:22:19,400 --> 00:22:23,480
one of the great portraits
of a court jester by Velazquez,

296
00:22:23,480 --> 00:22:27,160
which Manet would have seen
at the Prado in 1865.

297
00:22:27,160 --> 00:22:31,120
In the summer of 1865, he finally
makes his journey to Madrid.

298
00:22:31,120 --> 00:22:35,560
And, of course, is completely
ebloui, completely amazed by
Velazquez.

299
00:22:35,560 --> 00:22:38,840
And this is, on his return,
the homage that he paints.

300
00:22:38,840 --> 00:22:41,200
And the way you really
pick it up straightaway

301
00:22:41,200 --> 00:22:44,960
is this neutral backdrop.
Velazquez was just totally

302
00:22:44,960 --> 00:22:47,560
unabashed about using
neutral backdrops

303
00:22:47,560 --> 00:22:49,760
to bring the figure forward.

304
00:22:49,760 --> 00:22:53,280
And this is the kind of modernity
that Manet really wanted.

305
00:22:53,280 --> 00:22:57,680
He wanted to have that confirmation
that Velazquez was the key

306
00:22:57,680 --> 00:22:59,960
to what he was gonna be doing
back in Paris.

307
00:23:23,800 --> 00:23:26,720
Manet was a Parisian
through and through.

308
00:23:26,720 --> 00:23:28,720
But during his lifetime,
Paris underwent

309
00:23:28,720 --> 00:23:31,720
a radical transformation.

310
00:23:31,720 --> 00:23:35,040
Manet embraced change.
He lived all his life in and around

311
00:23:35,040 --> 00:23:38,680
the new suburbs
in the northwest of the city.

312
00:23:38,680 --> 00:23:42,320
And he was a great enthusiast
for the expanding railways,

313
00:23:42,320 --> 00:23:46,160
one of which snaked into the Gare
Saint-Lazare close to his home.

314
00:23:48,400 --> 00:23:50,640
MAN: 'One day coming back from
Versailles,

315
00:23:50,640 --> 00:23:52,920
I got up on the footplate
of a locomotive,

316
00:23:53,800 --> 00:23:56,120
alongside the engine driver
and fireman.

317
00:23:56,120 --> 00:23:58,120
It was a wonderful sight.

318
00:23:59,360 --> 00:24:01,960
Theirs is a dog's life,
but it's those men

319
00:24:01,960 --> 00:24:03,960
who are the heroes of today.'

320
00:24:05,960 --> 00:24:08,600
Manet's world was essentially
that of the boulevard,

321
00:24:08,600 --> 00:24:10,360
the salon and the cafe.

322
00:24:11,400 --> 00:24:14,480
But this vision of Paris,
so familiar to us today,

323
00:24:14,480 --> 00:24:18,120
emerged almost entirely
through the 19th century -

324
00:24:18,120 --> 00:24:20,600
from a city that had evolved
down the ages,

325
00:24:20,600 --> 00:24:23,680
with a warren of medieval streets
at it's heart,

326
00:24:23,680 --> 00:24:27,560
to the city of vast,
straight, spacious boulevards.

327
00:24:31,720 --> 00:24:34,040
These iconic thoroughfares
are the product

328
00:24:34,040 --> 00:24:36,480
of a remarkable period
of urban planning

329
00:24:36,480 --> 00:24:39,480
that took place through the middle
of the 19th century

330
00:24:39,480 --> 00:24:43,360
under the direction
of Georges-Eugene Haussmann.

331
00:24:43,360 --> 00:24:46,600
Haussmann had been commanded
by the emperor, Napoleon III,

332
00:24:46,600 --> 00:24:48,880
to regularise the city
at huge expense.

333
00:24:52,240 --> 00:24:56,240
MAN: 'Manet and I strolled together
through the midst of demolitions

334
00:24:56,240 --> 00:24:58,560
intersected by gaping holes

335
00:24:58,560 --> 00:25:01,280
where the ground
had already been levelled.

336
00:25:01,280 --> 00:25:03,400
House-breakers stood out.

337
00:25:03,400 --> 00:25:07,880
White against a wall less white,

338
00:25:07,880 --> 00:25:10,160
which was collapsing
under their blows,

339
00:25:10,920 --> 00:25:12,880
covering them in a cloud of dust.

340
00:25:14,480 --> 00:25:20,880
For a long time, Manet remained
absorbed in admiration of this
scene.

341
00:25:23,200 --> 00:25:26,040
I think that the development of
Paris in the second half

342
00:25:26,040 --> 00:25:28,840
of the 19th century under Napoleon
III

343
00:25:28,840 --> 00:25:32,120
and Haussmann was extremely
important for Manet.

344
00:25:32,120 --> 00:25:35,720
What he saw was whole districts
being ripped down

345
00:25:35,720 --> 00:25:40,120
and new buildings being put up,
new boulevards being created.

346
00:25:40,120 --> 00:25:44,560
Really the centre of modern Paris,
as we know it today, being created

347
00:25:44,560 --> 00:25:46,560
and he was fascinated by that.

348
00:25:49,360 --> 00:25:52,000
Manet's enthusiasm was matched
by that of his friend,

349
00:25:52,000 --> 00:25:54,000
the poet Charles Baudelaire.

350
00:25:54,960 --> 00:25:57,880
From 1858, the two
became close companions,

351
00:25:57,880 --> 00:26:02,680
meeting most days to stroll through
the boulevards and parks of the city.

352
00:26:02,680 --> 00:26:05,720
They held common ideas
about art and poetry

353
00:26:05,720 --> 00:26:10,840
and Baudelaire wrote an influential
essay entitled The Painter Of Modern
Life.

354
00:26:10,840 --> 00:26:13,920
In it he described an artist
who mixed with the crowd,

355
00:26:13,920 --> 00:26:17,440
but who remained an impartial
observer of behaviour and fashion.

356
00:26:17,440 --> 00:26:21,160
A figure he called the flaneur -
the stroller, the ambler.

357
00:26:23,520 --> 00:26:28,120
MAN: 'For the flaneur, it is an
endless source of pleasure

358
00:26:28,120 --> 00:26:32,760
to enrol in the multitude,
in the ebb and flow...

359
00:26:33,600 --> 00:26:37,920
and to observe the thousands
of floating existences

360
00:26:37,920 --> 00:26:40,920
which drift about the underworld
of a great city.'

361
00:26:43,520 --> 00:26:46,440
Such an observer was Manet.

362
00:27:34,400 --> 00:27:37,600
One of Manet's most strikingly
original works -

363
00:27:37,600 --> 00:27:41,520
Music In The Tuileries Gardens -
is a complex multi-figured portrait

364
00:27:41,520 --> 00:27:45,280
and a direct statement by Manet
about contemporary life.

365
00:27:45,280 --> 00:27:49,360
Within it, we see portraits
of Manet's family,
friends and acquaintances,

366
00:27:49,360 --> 00:27:53,360
from his brother Eugene Manet
to the writer Zacharie Astruc.

367
00:27:53,360 --> 00:27:56,640
And where some portraits are rendered
with a degree of precision,

368
00:27:56,640 --> 00:28:00,720
others, including that of Baudelaire,
are given only a cursory treatment.

369
00:28:04,080 --> 00:28:06,520
The painting is also a self-portrait,

370
00:28:06,520 --> 00:28:09,320
as Manet himself is pictured
at the far left,

371
00:28:09,320 --> 00:28:12,040
just on the edge of the canvas.

372
00:28:12,040 --> 00:28:15,360
But beyond being a literal likeness
of Manet and his circle,

373
00:28:15,360 --> 00:28:18,520
this is a kind of cultural
self-portrait

374
00:28:18,520 --> 00:28:22,240
and, above all, an affirmation
of Baudelaire's ideas of modernity,

375
00:28:22,240 --> 00:28:25,440
of the heroism of the transient
beauty of the modern life

376
00:28:25,440 --> 00:28:27,640
and the important role of the flaneur

377
00:28:27,640 --> 00:28:30,040
in interpreting and representing
that beauty.

378
00:28:56,000 --> 00:28:58,840
Joining me in front of Music
in the Tuileries Gardens

379
00:28:58,840 --> 00:29:01,720
is the writer and film maker
Iain Sinclair, who's written

380
00:29:01,720 --> 00:29:04,400
extensively about the experience
of the modern city.

381
00:29:04,400 --> 00:29:09,760
Iain, when you look at this painting,
does it scream modern Paris to you?

382
00:29:09,760 --> 00:29:11,920
It shouts about modernity,

383
00:29:11,920 --> 00:29:15,160
it shouts about the contact
with Baudelaire,

384
00:29:15,160 --> 00:29:20,000
who is looking at cities in a new
way and giving the germs of ideas

385
00:29:20,000 --> 00:29:22,720
that will play on for poets
for generations.

386
00:29:22,720 --> 00:29:25,560
It's difficult to work out
what exactly is happening.

387
00:29:25,560 --> 00:29:29,120
We know there's a concert being
given, but there's no sign of the
orchestra.

388
00:29:29,120 --> 00:29:32,000
There's no real sense
of where they are, no focal point.

389
00:29:32,000 --> 00:29:34,680
I think its enigmatic
and almost surreal quality

390
00:29:34,680 --> 00:29:37,600
is a germ of modernity, certainly.

391
00:29:37,600 --> 00:29:40,520
And the action is not in the frame.

392
00:29:40,520 --> 00:29:43,600
The music is elsewhere.
What are these people doing here?

393
00:29:43,600 --> 00:29:48,640
It's like this hugely clotted
gathering in a strange space.

394
00:29:48,640 --> 00:29:51,840
They are here because they have
moral or social importance.

395
00:29:51,840 --> 00:29:54,240
They're all placed
and positioned in there

396
00:29:54,240 --> 00:29:57,520
as if they represented
virtues in some way

397
00:29:57,520 --> 00:30:01,400
and as if the music was off-screen
and something that was haunting them

398
00:30:01,400 --> 00:30:05,080
but which we, as a reader, would
have to bring ourselves to the
action.

399
00:30:05,080 --> 00:30:07,520
Interesting that...

400
00:30:07,520 --> 00:30:11,120
this has been described as a kind
of cultural self-portrait by Manet.

401
00:30:11,120 --> 00:30:14,680
And he locates himself in the picture
but only on the extreme left.

402
00:30:14,680 --> 00:30:17,560
So he's in the picture, but he's
detached to a certain extent.

403
00:30:17,560 --> 00:30:19,640
Well, it's the gaze, the Manet gaze.

404
00:30:19,640 --> 00:30:21,760
He's looking at us
more than at the picture.

405
00:30:21,760 --> 00:30:24,280
But what you see in it
is almost a precursor

406
00:30:24,280 --> 00:30:28,800
of the artist of the moment in that
it's a wonderful example of
self-promotion.

407
00:30:28,800 --> 00:30:32,400
He's got all the possible critics
who could write about him
into the picture.

408
00:30:32,400 --> 00:30:35,680
All the dignitaries, all the social
figures, all the patrons.

409
00:30:35,680 --> 00:30:39,640
He's lined them all up and squeezed
them into this one picture.

410
00:30:39,640 --> 00:30:42,960
Within a year of painting
Music In The Tuileries Gardens,

411
00:30:42,960 --> 00:30:46,720
Manet's artistic radicalism
would provoke an outcry

412
00:30:46,720 --> 00:30:51,360
at the very heart of the French
artistic establishment,
the Paris Salon.

413
00:31:05,000 --> 00:31:07,440
Success for the many painters
in France

414
00:31:07,440 --> 00:31:11,680
was almost totally dependent
on being accepted by the Paris Salon,

415
00:31:11,680 --> 00:31:14,560
the annual artistic showcase
that had been established

416
00:31:14,560 --> 00:31:17,240
more than a century earlier
at the Louvre Palace.

417
00:31:22,080 --> 00:31:25,240
A jury recruited from members
of Paris' artistic elite

418
00:31:25,240 --> 00:31:27,600
would select the paintings
for exhibition,

419
00:31:27,600 --> 00:31:31,040
which were then hung
floor-to-ceiling.

420
00:31:31,040 --> 00:31:33,800
It was enormous.
There were thousands of paintings

421
00:31:33,800 --> 00:31:36,880
and pieces of sculpture on view.

422
00:31:36,880 --> 00:31:39,000
And they were arranged in a way

423
00:31:39,000 --> 00:31:41,840
which is almost unbelievable
to us today.

424
00:31:41,840 --> 00:31:43,920
You would put paintings together

425
00:31:43,920 --> 00:31:47,360
in whatever configuration
you could fit them.

426
00:31:47,360 --> 00:31:51,440
And also, the rooms
were organised alphabetically.

427
00:31:51,440 --> 00:31:55,280
So this wasn't an ideal way
of displaying paintings,

428
00:31:55,280 --> 00:31:59,160
but it was the space in which
to make your name.

429
00:31:59,160 --> 00:32:02,920
And for Manet, it remained
THE most important place

430
00:32:02,920 --> 00:32:04,920
in which to display his paintings.

431
00:32:16,920 --> 00:32:20,040
This is The Birth of Venus
by Alexandre Cabanel.

432
00:32:22,880 --> 00:32:26,640
It was exhibited in 1863
and proves that in that year,

433
00:32:26,640 --> 00:32:28,760
the Salon jury were not afraid
of nudity.

434
00:32:34,560 --> 00:32:36,760
Indeed, the critics warmly
praised the painting

435
00:32:36,760 --> 00:32:39,400
and its classical style.

436
00:32:39,400 --> 00:32:42,640
But this painting -
well, this was too much.

437
00:32:50,000 --> 00:32:52,920
It was Manet's 1863 submission.

438
00:32:52,920 --> 00:32:54,920
A painting called
The Luncheon On The Grass

439
00:32:54,920 --> 00:32:56,920
or Le Dejeuner sur l'Herbe.

440
00:32:59,120 --> 00:33:02,320
This is an image of a nude female
relaxing after lunch

441
00:33:02,320 --> 00:33:05,760
with two men dressed in the clothes
of contemporary dandies.

442
00:33:08,480 --> 00:33:11,320
It was easily interpreted
as a naked prostitute

443
00:33:11,320 --> 00:33:13,960
sitting in a city park
with two young students.

444
00:33:15,720 --> 00:33:18,080
The stark contemporary nature
of Manet's scene

445
00:33:18,080 --> 00:33:20,160
offended the Salon jury

446
00:33:20,160 --> 00:33:23,960
and the painting, to Manet's
intense disappointment, was rejected.

447
00:33:27,240 --> 00:33:32,480
In 1863, Manet wasn't alone
in being rejected by the Salon jury.

448
00:33:32,480 --> 00:33:37,040
2,200 were accepted,
but 2,800 were rejected.

449
00:33:40,320 --> 00:33:44,280
This unprecedented number of rejects
led to a public outcry

450
00:33:44,280 --> 00:33:47,040
and calls for an alternative
exhibition to be set up.

451
00:33:49,880 --> 00:33:52,480
And so, a Salon des Refuses
was organised,

452
00:33:52,480 --> 00:33:57,440
where 1,500 of the rejected paintings
were put on display.

453
00:33:57,440 --> 00:34:00,760
It was a sensation
with thousands visiting every day.

454
00:34:05,760 --> 00:34:10,200
Among them was a new phenomenon
in the art world, the art critic.

455
00:34:10,200 --> 00:34:13,600
And the painting the new critics
tore into above all

456
00:34:13,600 --> 00:34:15,600
was Le Dejeuner sur l'Herbe.

457
00:34:17,680 --> 00:34:19,720
MAN: 'Manet will show talent

458
00:34:19,720 --> 00:34:22,280
once he learns drawing
and perspective,

459
00:34:22,280 --> 00:34:25,160
and taste once he stops
choosing subjects

460
00:34:25,160 --> 00:34:27,160
for the sake of scandal.'

461
00:34:31,600 --> 00:34:34,600
MAN: 'I fail to see what could
have induced

462
00:34:34,600 --> 00:34:37,240
such a distinguished
and intelligent artist

463
00:34:37,240 --> 00:34:39,520
to adopt such an absurd
composition.'

464
00:36:05,600 --> 00:36:08,840
I'm now joined by Larry Nichols,
the co-curator of the exhibition,

465
00:36:08,840 --> 00:36:12,320
who is from the Toledo Museum of Art
in Toledo, Ohio

466
00:36:12,320 --> 00:36:15,080
and who has a special relationship
with this painting

467
00:36:15,080 --> 00:36:19,040
which is of Manet's great friend,
Antonin Proust, the politician,

468
00:36:19,040 --> 00:36:21,080
who's also trained
as an artist, I think.

469
00:36:21,080 --> 00:36:25,640
Larry, what is the significance
for you of this work?

470
00:36:25,640 --> 00:36:29,440
This picture was exhibited
in the Salon in 1880

471
00:36:29,440 --> 00:36:32,880
and some 44 years later,
on the open market in New York,

472
00:36:32,880 --> 00:36:35,240
the founder of the Toledo
Museum of Art,

473
00:36:35,240 --> 00:36:38,280
Edward Drummond Libbey,
purchases this painting,

474
00:36:38,280 --> 00:36:40,880
leaves it to the museum
at his death in 1925

475
00:36:40,880 --> 00:36:43,560
and it goes on view January 26.

476
00:36:43,560 --> 00:36:46,520
And it's been part of our collection
and one of the highlights

477
00:36:46,520 --> 00:36:49,640
of our museum's holdings
and is to this moment.

478
00:36:49,640 --> 00:36:51,680
I've been fortunate
to work in service,

479
00:36:51,680 --> 00:36:54,040
curate at that museum
for some two decades now

480
00:36:54,040 --> 00:36:58,480
and I said, 'Someday,
I might wanna participate

481
00:36:58,480 --> 00:37:02,880
in this painting being in an exhibit
on his portraiture.'

482
00:37:02,880 --> 00:37:07,120
And the way the profession works,
I heard that London,

483
00:37:07,120 --> 00:37:09,160
my colleague and friend,
MaryAnne Stevens,

484
00:37:09,160 --> 00:37:11,840
was thinking of doing something
with Manet as well.

485
00:37:11,840 --> 00:37:15,120
And we got together, we said,
'Let's do Manet,

486
00:37:15,120 --> 00:37:17,200
let's do Manet's portraiture.'

487
00:37:17,200 --> 00:37:22,080
And this a linchpin then and the
genesis of this project.

488
00:37:22,080 --> 00:37:25,920
Many people, now having made
part of this journey with us
through this exhibition,

489
00:37:25,920 --> 00:37:29,000
will look at this and think,
in relative terms,

490
00:37:29,000 --> 00:37:32,160
we're on safer ground, there's an
element of the conventional.

491
00:37:32,160 --> 00:37:35,600
Oh, sure. Mm-hm. But do you think
there's a radical underpinning

492
00:37:35,600 --> 00:37:39,440
or is this Manet playing
a more conventional game?

493
00:37:39,440 --> 00:37:43,520
The composition is, er...

494
00:37:43,520 --> 00:37:48,200
In the terms you've just set up,
the composition is traditional.

495
00:37:48,200 --> 00:37:51,520
I was in the National Gallery
down the street not many days ago

496
00:37:51,520 --> 00:37:53,840
looking at Titian portraits.

497
00:37:53,840 --> 00:37:56,360
And you can find gloves
just like that,

498
00:37:56,360 --> 00:37:58,720
and the stance and the arm akimbo.

499
00:37:58,720 --> 00:38:01,920
This intelligent artist
knew his art history.

500
00:38:01,920 --> 00:38:05,720
Composition, technique - it's
radical and it's modern.

501
00:38:05,720 --> 00:38:07,760
So, I'm giving you two answers
there.

502
00:38:07,760 --> 00:38:14,680
He is applying paint to canvas
in ways that is new for the time.

503
00:38:14,680 --> 00:38:18,360
The beard, the light on it,
the boutonniere.

504
00:38:18,360 --> 00:38:22,000
He's applying paint... There were
individuals who thought it looked...

505
00:38:22,000 --> 00:38:24,200
critics who thought it was
unfinished.

506
00:38:24,200 --> 00:38:26,560
I mean, this is as finished
as he ever gets.

507
00:38:27,120 --> 00:38:30,680
One of the great misconceptions
about Manet was that
he was an Impressionist.

508
00:38:30,680 --> 00:38:33,160
But he never considered himself
part of the group.

509
00:38:33,160 --> 00:38:35,720
In fact, despite his friendship
with the young artists

510
00:38:35,720 --> 00:38:37,800
who were dubbed Impressionists,

511
00:38:37,800 --> 00:38:41,520
he was at pains to remain separate,
to stand apart.

512
00:38:48,880 --> 00:38:52,080
By the late 1860s,
Manet was well established

513
00:38:52,080 --> 00:38:54,880
as the most celebrated
avant-garde artist in Paris.

514
00:38:56,880 --> 00:38:59,240
Around him gathered
a group of young artists,

515
00:38:59,240 --> 00:39:02,360
including Degas, Monet and Renoir.

516
00:39:02,360 --> 00:39:05,040
They met in cafes,
mostly in those new suburbs

517
00:39:05,040 --> 00:39:07,040
to the northwest of the city.

518
00:39:08,200 --> 00:39:12,440
Ideas about art were argued,
exchanged and advanced.

519
00:39:12,440 --> 00:39:14,480
This was the crucible
of the art movement

520
00:39:14,480 --> 00:39:16,480
that came to be called Impressionism.

521
00:39:20,360 --> 00:39:25,040
In 1874, these and other artists
decided to hold their own exhibition,

522
00:39:25,040 --> 00:39:27,800
here at the studio
of the photographer Nadar.

523
00:39:32,840 --> 00:39:36,760
One painting in the exhibition
was this by Claude Monet.

524
00:39:36,760 --> 00:39:41,120
It was called Impression, Sunrise.

525
00:39:41,120 --> 00:39:45,320
A critic hated it and mocked
this new style of Impressionism.

526
00:39:55,520 --> 00:39:58,040
Manet's name was associated
with the movement,

527
00:39:58,040 --> 00:40:01,680
but he never agreed
to exhibit with them.

528
00:40:01,680 --> 00:40:05,280
Manet is not an Impressionist
for a whole variety of reasons,

529
00:40:05,280 --> 00:40:09,800
although people tend to think of him
very much as being an Impressionist.

530
00:40:09,800 --> 00:40:11,880
First of all, to be an Impressionist

531
00:40:11,880 --> 00:40:15,400
really one had to have exhibited
with the Impressionist group.

532
00:40:15,400 --> 00:40:20,840
They had eight group shows
between 1874 and 1886.

533
00:40:20,840 --> 00:40:23,200
And Manet was invited
on several occasions

534
00:40:23,200 --> 00:40:26,440
to join with the group
and he refused on every occasion.

535
00:40:28,800 --> 00:40:31,040
But beyond his reluctance to exhibit,

536
00:40:31,040 --> 00:40:35,760
Manet's approach to painting differed
fundamentally from that of the
Impressionists.

537
00:40:35,760 --> 00:40:39,520
Working outdoors, en plein air, the
Impressionists set out to capture

538
00:40:39,520 --> 00:40:43,600
the fleeting effects of light on
their subjects through an innovative
approach

539
00:40:43,600 --> 00:40:46,920
to brushwork and colour.

540
00:40:46,920 --> 00:40:52,240
I think he was very intrigued
by a looser technique,

541
00:40:52,240 --> 00:40:55,920
a lighter palette, the possibility
of working out of doors.

542
00:40:55,920 --> 00:40:59,680
He didn't enjoy it terribly,
but he gave it a try.

543
00:40:59,680 --> 00:41:03,160
But it's very interesting,
he never lost...

544
00:41:03,160 --> 00:41:05,920
two things.
One was the sense of form.

545
00:41:05,920 --> 00:41:09,200
He never breaks up his form in the
way that the Impressionists do,

546
00:41:09,200 --> 00:41:13,720
where they allow light to fracture
the form and disperse it.

547
00:41:14,240 --> 00:41:18,240
He holds on to the importance
of form but, at the same time,

548
00:41:18,240 --> 00:41:21,240
constantly plays
with this two-dimensionality,

549
00:41:21,240 --> 00:41:23,560
which the Impressionists
only really get to

550
00:41:23,560 --> 00:41:26,440
in the 1880s, after Manet's death.

551
00:41:48,440 --> 00:41:53,520
Painted in 1873, The Railway
is one of Manet's great works.

552
00:41:53,520 --> 00:41:57,880
It's an encapsulation of his ability
to fuse the portrait, the genre seen,

553
00:41:57,880 --> 00:42:01,160
and a depiction of modern life.

554
00:42:01,160 --> 00:42:04,640
The subject of the painting's title
barely appears in the frame,

555
00:42:04,640 --> 00:42:07,440
and yet the modernity
of the railway below,

556
00:42:07,440 --> 00:42:09,800
which had just opened
five years before,

557
00:42:09,800 --> 00:42:13,120
and the Pont de l'Europe
just visible in the background,

558
00:42:13,120 --> 00:42:16,320
emphatically declare it as a scene
of contemporary life.

559
00:42:19,880 --> 00:42:22,640
And then, staring out
almost confronting the viewer,

560
00:42:22,640 --> 00:42:25,440
is a young woman,
the model Victorine Meurent

561
00:42:25,440 --> 00:42:27,720
dressed in the latest
autumn fashions.

562
00:42:29,760 --> 00:42:32,080
She's accompanied
by an anonymous little girl

563
00:42:32,080 --> 00:42:35,360
whose focus is on the noise and steam
of the locomotives below.

564
00:42:37,520 --> 00:42:39,800
The two occupy a compressed space

565
00:42:39,800 --> 00:42:42,880
between the picture plane
and the iron bars of the railings,

566
00:42:42,880 --> 00:42:45,160
that beat a rhythm
across the composition.

567
00:42:47,200 --> 00:42:49,400
The painting was accepted
at the Salon.

568
00:42:49,400 --> 00:42:51,720
But, like so many of Manet's
previous works,

569
00:42:51,720 --> 00:42:55,200
The Railway frustrated critics,
one of whom complained,

570
00:42:55,200 --> 00:42:58,400
'Is this a double portrait
or a subject picture?'

571
00:42:58,400 --> 00:43:01,120
And in many ways,
that was the point for Manet.

572
00:43:01,120 --> 00:43:03,480
It was both and neither.

573
00:43:16,920 --> 00:43:19,360
I'm joined in front of The Railway
by the actor,

574
00:43:19,360 --> 00:43:21,880
director and Manet enthusiast
Fiona Shaw.

575
00:43:21,880 --> 00:43:24,680
Fiona, this again,
I suppose superficially,

576
00:43:24,680 --> 00:43:28,600
is a very straightforward picture.
But it is enigmatic, too.

577
00:43:28,600 --> 00:43:31,800
Do you make sense of it easily?
Well, looking at it now, I...

578
00:43:31,800 --> 00:43:34,760
it does have a hint of sort of
what became later a sentimental

579
00:43:34,760 --> 00:43:37,840
painting, as you think,
of a lady and a child and...

580
00:43:37,840 --> 00:43:40,880
I suppose what is striking
about the painting is that it's set

581
00:43:40,880 --> 00:43:43,520
in an urban context
and he was definitely trying

582
00:43:43,520 --> 00:43:45,600
to get away from the countryside.

583
00:43:45,600 --> 00:43:48,640
I suppose it's very daring
to put a rather nice, innocent lady

584
00:43:48,640 --> 00:43:51,400
and the little girl,
but against this new Paris

585
00:43:51,400 --> 00:43:55,000
that's building up behind.
I think that's probably
what the point of itis.

586
00:43:55,000 --> 00:43:57,640
Picking up on the image of innocence
- cos you're right,

587
00:43:57,640 --> 00:44:00,240
it's a girl in a fashionable,
pretty frock,

588
00:44:00,240 --> 00:44:02,280
there's a woman
in very fashionable attire

589
00:44:02,280 --> 00:44:04,720
with a dog on her lap, reading.
But in the flesh,

590
00:44:04,720 --> 00:44:07,800
isn't there something quite
confrontational about her face?

591
00:44:07,800 --> 00:44:10,000
Don't you feel you've invaded a space
that you

592
00:44:10,000 --> 00:44:12,160
might not have done
or shouldn't have done?

593
00:44:12,160 --> 00:44:16,680
It's interesting you say that
because I think in general, where he
uses this gaze of a female

594
00:44:16,680 --> 00:44:19,440
looking straight
at the camera as it were,

595
00:44:19,440 --> 00:44:25,400
is he trying to say it's him
looking through these women's eyes?

596
00:44:25,400 --> 00:44:27,960
It's a very strange way
of painting something.

597
00:44:27,960 --> 00:44:30,880
It's not a painting of the woman
and the child, is it?

598
00:44:30,880 --> 00:44:34,360
It's somehow a painting
in which the woman and the child,

599
00:44:34,360 --> 00:44:36,720
or the woman, is in dialogue with
us.

600
00:44:36,720 --> 00:44:39,480
So it's not of something,
it's about something.

601
00:44:39,480 --> 00:44:42,520
And I suppose in this case,
it's about,

602
00:44:42,520 --> 00:44:46,960
yes, maybe her bewilderment
at being in a new country

603
00:44:46,960 --> 00:44:50,120
that's becoming new, that France
is changing under her feet.

604
00:44:50,120 --> 00:44:53,160
She seems such a classical
bourgeois lady.

605
00:44:53,160 --> 00:44:56,200
She so... You know, she so isn't.

606
00:44:56,200 --> 00:44:59,720
Yes, actually, as I look at it now,
she's almost questioning.

607
00:44:59,720 --> 00:45:02,920
There's something about
the alienating nature

608
00:45:02,920 --> 00:45:05,240
of modern life or of the city. Yes.

609
00:45:05,240 --> 00:45:07,720
Some of Manet's visions
have this kind of, you know,

610
00:45:07,720 --> 00:45:10,120
people in the Tuileries
Gardens together. Yes.

611
00:45:10,120 --> 00:45:12,800
But a lot of the time
people are together but isolated.

612
00:45:12,800 --> 00:45:14,920
This is very loudly that, I think.

613
00:45:14,920 --> 00:45:18,560
It is, and she's very...
It's very vintage Manet
in that you know it's Manet.

614
00:45:18,560 --> 00:45:20,600
It's something to do
with the black choker.

615
00:45:20,600 --> 00:45:24,120
He does define the character
as though it's in the world,

616
00:45:24,120 --> 00:45:27,760
whether it's going to last long
or whether the world
is a nice world to be in.

617
00:45:27,760 --> 00:45:31,200
But he's very definite about her.
She's definitely there

618
00:45:31,200 --> 00:45:33,560
for all the book and the lap dog
and everything.

619
00:45:33,560 --> 00:45:36,680
And there's something
very lonely about it.

620
00:45:37,480 --> 00:45:40,800
By the end of the 1870s,
there was a sense that Manet's work

621
00:45:40,800 --> 00:45:43,760
had been eclipsed to a certain extent
by the radical steps

622
00:45:43,760 --> 00:45:47,640
taken by the Impressionists
to make a new form of painting.

623
00:45:47,640 --> 00:45:50,000
But in the very last years
of his life

624
00:45:50,000 --> 00:45:53,280
and already suffering the effects
of the syphilis that would kill him,

625
00:45:53,280 --> 00:45:56,480
Manet created one final great work.

626
00:46:11,160 --> 00:46:13,480
MAN: 'This theatre.

627
00:46:13,480 --> 00:46:16,000
It is the only place
in Paris which reeks

628
00:46:16,000 --> 00:46:21,320
so exquisitely of paid love
and wearied corruptions.'

629
00:46:24,800 --> 00:46:28,680
In Manet's last great work,
the Bar At The Folies-Bergere,

630
00:46:28,680 --> 00:46:30,760
we're confronted by a direct gaze

631
00:46:30,760 --> 00:46:34,600
like few others
in the history of art.

632
00:46:34,600 --> 00:46:38,240
There's a sense that perhaps he knew
it would stand as a final statement,

633
00:46:38,240 --> 00:46:40,800
an encapsulation
of all that he tried to do.

634
00:46:47,400 --> 00:46:51,640
The Bar At The
Folies-Bergere is a true masterpiece

635
00:46:51,640 --> 00:46:56,120
and it was meant to be so
because Manet was ill.

636
00:46:56,120 --> 00:47:00,160
He knew that his doctor, erm...

637
00:47:02,160 --> 00:47:05,400
..didn't have the means to cure him.

638
00:47:05,400 --> 00:47:09,880
And it is also a kind of farewell
to the Paris world...

639
00:47:11,080 --> 00:47:15,520
..that he loved to enjoy before.

640
00:47:15,520 --> 00:47:20,760
So he tried to, well,
sum up everything in one painting.

641
00:47:23,640 --> 00:47:25,840
The barmaid stands in place,

642
00:47:25,840 --> 00:47:29,360
a bar offering bottles of champagne,
flowers and fruit.

643
00:47:29,360 --> 00:47:31,840
But with the lights and ambience
of the nightclub

644
00:47:31,840 --> 00:47:34,720
visible in the mirror behind her.

645
00:47:34,720 --> 00:47:37,480
Her face betrays a weary resignation,

646
00:47:37,480 --> 00:47:39,440
totally at odds
with her surroundings.

647
00:47:41,840 --> 00:47:47,200
And then, in an extraordinary twist,
off to the right, a mirror image,

648
00:47:47,200 --> 00:47:49,280
we see the face of her customer,

649
00:47:49,280 --> 00:47:52,040
the viewer, in effect, us.

650
00:48:10,040 --> 00:48:14,680
Manet died, aged 51,
on 30th April 1883,

651
00:48:14,680 --> 00:48:16,880
suffering from advanced syphilis,

652
00:48:16,880 --> 00:48:19,960
and having failed to recover
from the amputation of his left leg

653
00:48:19,960 --> 00:48:22,200
earlier in the month due to gangrene.

654
00:48:28,040 --> 00:48:31,520
Among the pallbearers at his funeral
were his great friends

655
00:48:31,520 --> 00:48:36,000
Antonin Proust, Emile Zola
and Claude Monet.

656
00:48:36,000 --> 00:48:39,280
Edgar Degas was reported
to have said after his death,

657
00:48:39,280 --> 00:48:41,760
'He was more important
than we realised'.

658
00:48:53,920 --> 00:48:55,880
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