Édouard Manet : The Great Works

This is a richly illustrated new volume devoted to the most important works by Édouard Manet —a pivotal figure in the emergence of Impressionism and widely considered the first modern artist. With nearly one hundred seminal paintings, this publication celebrates the artist who paved the way for the Impressionist movement and the rise of modernism. Combining a radical technique with contemporary subjects, Manet’s groundbreaking works engage with modern Paris, depicting its new boulevards and fashionable parks and cafés along with a range of urban types, from ragpickers and prostitutes to barmaids and elegant Parisians. Included here are the artist’s iconic scenes of modern life such as Luncheon on the Grass, with its shocking juxtaposition of a female nude and a pair of fully dressed men, and Olympia, a modern reworking of Titian’s Renaissance masterpiece, Venus of Urbino, that scandalized Paris in the 1860s and established Manet as the leader of the avant-garde. This book also explores Manet’s artistic legacy in the work of subsequent generations of artists, from Cézanne and Picasso to contemporary artists including Nicole Eisenman.