"Richly detailed and informative, (this biography) exposes the character of an artist who maintained a sharply defined duality between his public and private personas" ("Philadelphia Inquirer" and "grants us a far deeper understanding of why (Manet's) paintings outraged so many of his peers" ("Booklist", starred review). 70 halftones.

The inventor of modernity Violently criticized during his lifetime for his supposedly provocative paintings, French painter Edouard Manet (1832-1883) is now considered a master of inestimable importance in the history of painting. His 1863 painting "D�jeuner sur l'herbe" depicting two clothed men picnicing with a nude woman--now considered one of the most memorable images of the 19th century--stirred up controversy for what many considered its vulgar audacity. It was famously rejected by the Paris Salon and exhibited in the Salon des Refus�s. Manet's bold style helped pave the way from Realism to Impressionism, and in doing so ushered in the age of modern art. About the Series: Each book in TASCHEN's Basic Art series features: a detailed chronological summary of the life and oeuvre of the artist, covering his or her cultural and historical importance a concise biography approximately 100 illustrations with explanatory captions

Presents the still-life paintings of the great Impressionist master Edouard Manet, including a wide variety of oil paintings, watercolors, and prints, as well as an essay on the artist and his work.

Ill. on lining papers.

In the winter of 1880 Edouard Manet, then 49, was dying. In the last months of his life he funnelled his waning energy into a series of remarkable still lifes - 16 small paintings of flowers - which are brought together in this book. An essay by Andrew Forge pays tribute to the artist's struggle and his legacy, and Robert Gordon's selections from Manet's letters add poignancy to this last glow of a brilliant artistic flame.

Julie Manet, the niece of Edouard Manet and the daughter of the most famous female Impressionist artist, Berthe Morisot, was born in Paris on 14 November 1878 into a wealthy and cultured milieu at the height of the Impressionist era. Many young girls still confide their inner thoughts to diaries and it is hardly surprising that, with her mother giving all her encouragement, Julie would prove to be no exception to the rule. At the age of ten, Julie began writing her `memoirs' but it wasn't until August 1893, at fourteen, that Julie began her diary in earnest: no neat leather-bound volume with lock and key but just untidy notes scribbled in old exercise books, often in pencil, the presentation as spontaneous as its contents. Her extraordinary diary - newly translated here by an expert on Impressionism - reveals a vivid depiction of a vital period in France's cultural history seen through the youthful and precocious eyes of the youngest member of what was surely the most prominent artistic family of the time.

Here approximately two hundred works by French and Spanish artists chart the development of this cultural influence and map a fascinating shift in the paradigm of painting, from Idealism to Realism, from Italy to Spain, from Renaissance to Baroque. Above all, these images demonstrate how direct contact with Spanish painting fired the imagination of nineteenth-century French artists and brought about the triumph of Realism in the 1860s, and with it a foundation for modern art."--BOOK JACKET.