GENERAL DESCRIPTION
Félix Bracquemond was one of the major printmakers of the Impressionist movement, playing a large role in both the etching revival (1850–1930) and the new interest in Japanese prints and printmaking in France.
This etching of Édouard Manet was a frontispiece to a biography of the artist published in 1867. Bracquemond based the print on an earlier photograph of Manet taken by the photographer Anatole Godet in 1865.
In this etching, Bracquemond crops Godet’s photograph to focus on Manet’s face, his head turned slightly away from the viewer. Manet praised Bracquemond for his portraiture, writing earlier to the artist: “My dear B, I was awaiting your visit today, and thought of complimenting you on your portrait . . . [particularly] the head, which is very good generally.”
Adapted from
Amy Wojciechowski, DMA label copy, 2017.
NOTES
Created 1867
Cannot locate usable photo by Godet.
Label copy:
My dear Bracquemond, I was awaiting your visit today, and thought of complimenting you on your portrait. . . . The head, which is very good generally, will bring you great honor. Please come tomorrow afternoon, if you can. Yours sincerely.”
—Edouard Manet, French painter and printmaker, in a letter to the artist and etcher Félix Bracquemond, 1864
“[Manet’s] hair and beard are of a pale chestnut color; his eyes narrow and deep, have a youthful liveliness and fire; his mouth is characteristic: thin, mobile, a bit mocking at the corners. His whole face, in its delicate and intelligent irregularity, indicates flexibility and daring, a disdain for silliness and banality. And if we descend from the face to the person himself, we find in Edouard Manet a man of exquisite civility and politeness, distinguished in bearing and sympathetic in appearance.”
—Emile Zola, French essayist and critic, in his brochure Edouard Manet, ètude biographique et critique, 1867
Catalogue essays
Artist/designers
Cultures
Geography
Process/materials
Historical periods
Individuals
Édouard Manet
Subject terms
RELATED OBJECTS
PROVENANCE
AUDIO ASSETS
VIDEO ASSETS
IMAGE ASSETS
WEB RESOURCES
- Staten Island Museum~View an etching of Felix Bracquemond by Édouard Manet.
- Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, The Metropolitan Musuem of Art, New York~Read a biography of Édouard Manet.
ARCHIVAL RESOURCES
FUN FACTS
TEACHING IDEAS
RULES
Apply to objects where number equals 2000.78.FA
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General Description
Félix Bracquemond was one of the major printmakers of the Impressionist movement, playing a large role in both the etching revival (1850–1930) and the new interest in Japanese prints and printmaking in France.
This etching of Édouard Manet was a frontispiece to a biography of the artist published in 1867. Bracquemond based the print on an earlier photograph of Manet taken by the photographer Anatole Godet in 1865.
In this etching, Bracquemond crops Godet’s photograph to focus on Manet’s face, his head turned slightly away from the viewer. Manet praised Bracquemond for his portraiture, writing earlier to the artist: “My dear B, I was awaiting your visit today, and thought of complimenting you on your portrait . . . [particularly] the head, which is very good generally.”
Adapted from
Amy Wojciechowski, DMA label copy, 2017.
Fun Facts
Archival Resources
Web Resources
- Staten Island Museum~View an etching of Felix Bracquemond by Édouard Manet.
- Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, The Metropolitan Musuem of Art, New York~Read a biography of Édouard Manet.
Notes
Created 1867
Cannot locate usable photo by Godet.
Label copy:
My dear Bracquemond, I was awaiting your visit today, and thought of complimenting you on your portrait. . . . The head, which is very good generally, will bring you great honor. Please come tomorrow afternoon, if you can. Yours sincerely.”
—Edouard Manet, French painter and printmaker, in a letter to the artist and etcher Félix Bracquemond, 1864
“[Manet’s] hair and beard are of a pale chestnut color; his eyes narrow and deep, have a youthful liveliness and fire; his mouth is characteristic: thin, mobile, a bit mocking at the corners. His whole face, in its delicate and intelligent irregularity, indicates flexibility and daring, a disdain for silliness and banality. And if we descend from the face to the person himself, we find in Edouard Manet a man of exquisite civility and politeness, distinguished in bearing and sympathetic in appearance.”
—Emile Zola, French essayist and critic, in his brochure Edouard Manet, ètude biographique et critique, 1867
Catalogue essays
Artist/designers
Cultures
Geography
Process/materials
Historical periods
Individuals
Édouard Manet
Subject terms
RELATED OBJECTS
PROVENANCE
AUDIO ASSETS
VIDEO ASSETS
rules
Apply To
Objects
number
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2000.78.FA
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object_notes_2_c-0185.xml.nores