"Still life with salmon,"
1866. Oil on canvas from the collection of the Shelburne
Museum, Shelburne, Vt.
Manet: The
Still Life Paintings
First Major Survey Opens in France and Heads for
Baltimore
PARIS, FRANCE - The first major survey devoted to the still-life
paintings of Edouard Manet (1832-1883), "Manet: The Still-Life
Paintings," premieres on October 9 at the Musee d'Orsay, Paris.
The exhibition will then travel to The Walters Art Gallery,
Baltimore, its exclusive presentation in the United States, where
it will be on view January 28 through April 22, 2001.
The exhibition is organized by the American Federation of Arts
and the Reunion des Musees Nationaux/Musee d'Orsay, Paris.
"Manet: The Still-Life Paintings" comprises approximately 37
paintings (including rarely seen works by this master), as well
as a selection of works on paper in a variety of media, drawn
from museums and private collections around the world,
representing the entire range of Manet's production in the genre.
Several figure paintings in which still life plays a salient
role, such as "Portrait of Theodore Duret" (1868) and "Woman with
a Pitcher" (1858-60), provide provocative clues with regard to
Manet's conception of still life as an independent genre. Samples
of the artist's private correspondence, which he decorated with
deft, intimate renderings of flowers and fruit, are also
included.
Although Manet is celebrated for the revolutionary character of
his figure paintings, such as his 1863 masterwork "Le Dejeuner
sur l'herbe," approximately 80 of Manet's paintings - one-fifth
of his oeuvre - were dedicated to still life. "A painter can say
all he wants to with fruit or flowers or even clouds," the artist
once remarked.
Manet devoted himself to the genre he considered "the touchstone
of the painter," with varying degrees of intensity. Between 1862
and 1869 he produced 22 still-life paintings; only ten are known
from the 1870s; and, finally, he painted 50 still lifes between
1880 and 1883.
For information, contact the American Federation of Arts at
212/988-7700.
