Manet and Modern Beauty: The Late Career of the Painter

Getty Art + Ideas
Getty Art + Ideas
Manet and Modern Beauty: The Late Career of the Painter
/

French painter Édouard Manet is perhaps best known for his large scale paintings like Olympia and Le déjeuner sur l’herbe, both of which stoked controversy when they were first displayed. But in later life, with his health deteriorating, the artist shifted his focus to luscious still lifes, delicate pastels and watercolors, and portraits of social types like the parisienne or the dandy.

The exhibition Manet and Modern Beauty focuses on this often overlooked period of Manet’s career, from the late 1870s through his early death in 1883. In this episode, curators Emily Beeny and Scott Allan discuss key works from the exhibition and what they teach us about modernity and Manet.

Author: Getty Media

Getty staff select highlights of Getty multimedia, new and from the archives.