Manet and Modern Beauty

It's a very rich book and catalogue of the Getty exhibition of the same title. Essays from ten authors treat the artworks, the techniques, the correspondance of Manet, and through them his professional carrier, his social and private life, His appreciation of beauty, let it be flowers, women or dresses shows us a lust for life, that reconnects him with contemporeanity.

Manet and Modern Beauty: The Artist’s Last Years, edited by Scott Allan, Emily A. Beeny, and Gloria Groom, is the catalogue for the eponymous exhibit of Édouard Manet’s later works. Filled with lush color representations of the paintings and ephemera on display, the expansive book also delights with authoritative, informative essays for those who might not be as familiar with Manet’s life and painting, or for those eager to learn current theories about the painter.

Later in life Manet gravitated toward unabashedly painting fashion, flowers, and fruit. Unlike his political and hierarchical-upsetting earlier works, he seemed pleased to focus on painting what simply appealed to his eyes during his later years when he was unwell and had limited mobility.

Two notable works in the collection are Jeanne (Spring) and Autumn (Méry Laurent), the only two of a planned set of four to represent the seasons that Manet completed.

The Conservatory, Plum Brandy, Waitress Serving Beer, and the Café-Concert are some of the other paintings depicting modern life and fashion that preoccupied Manet in the second half of his career. No one paints a good mug of beer like Manet. It’s as if he’s anticipating drinking it as he creates it. Equally, no one uses color quite in the same way, either. If you don’t know his paintings by the hands, you’ll know them by the way he places colors adjacent to one another. He evidences his joy in flowers by the care he takes in drawing them. His palette makes flowers look even more beautiful than they do in real life. It’s the work of someone who knows he’s dying and wants to gather to himself all of the beauty and color he will have to leave behind.

The editors of the book thank Juliet Wilson-Bureau, and with good reason: her extensive Manet scholarship is deeply felt in the exhibit. Essay authors and contributors to the collection include Carol Armstrong, Helen Burnham, Leah Lehmbeck, Devi Ormond, Douglas MacLennan, Nathan Daly, Catherine Schmidt Patterson, Bridget Alsdorf, Jamie Kwan, and Samuel Rodary. They write on topics as varied as Manet and the Salon to the materials he used, a fascinatingly deep dive. His “little nothings” are the subject of Armstrong’s essay, lending weight to something Manet himself pretended to dismiss.

The essays are engaging and necessary reading for the exhibit goer (preferably devoured before attending the show and again after), and perhaps even more necessary for those who cannot attend. For Manet aficionados, this book will both whet your appetite to see the paintings and to study him more in-depth than ever before. What the authors spark is a hunger for examining the paintings for oneself.

This volume will satisfy the curiosity of the most avid fan. It delves into the provenance of every painting. It depicts his “scribbles” on envelopes and his attempts at painting tambourine skins. It reprints correspondence to and from Manet about his paintings. As a souvenir, an exhibit guidebook, and a textbook, Manet and Modern Beauty is one for the art lover’s library.

An important note for would-be viewers: a few of the paintings are not going to be shown at both the Art Institute in Chicago and the J. Paul Getty Museum in L.A., (the two museums which will host the show), so reviewing the book to know if your favorite will be at the museum you will attend the show at is advisable.

This book was an excellent overview of Manet’s work.

My favorite part was the methods and materials section. It is interesting how artists work can be detected to learn their secrets and techniques. This section showed great insight and inspiration for my own paintings.

Any aspiring artist would enjoy this book. It would also be a great coffee table book with all the beautiful Manet works.

I received this galley from NetGalley.

A gorgeously illustrated, meticulously detailed account of the painter Edouard Manet's final years. Shows the artist's influence on later painters, and includes a chronology of his life. Will appeal to art history students, painters looking for inspiration, and anyone who enjoys looking at great art.

This book coincides with the art exhibit of the same name, and includes plates of the works featured in addition to the catalogue of the exhibition. The essays included are interesting, and give insight into his later works. I especially enjoyed the inclusion of many of Manet's letters to friends which included watercolor sketches- what a treat it must have been to receive one of these missives! A lovely book, perfect for any lover of art

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