Édouard Manet Paintings

Édouard Manet's paintings bring portraits, leisure, and modern urban encounters into compositions shaped by earlier painting. Contrasts of light and dark, including a strong use of black, define faces, clothing, and surrounding space, while his study of Velázquez informed his treatment of figures. The Fifer isolates a uniformed musician against a spare setting, allowing posture and dress to carry much of the image. A Bar at the Folies-Bergère instead uses a barmaid, counter, and mirror to organize a more complex encounter within a Parisian music hall. Although he made sketches there, Manet completed the painting in his studio with the barmaid Suzon posing as his model. Its displaced reflections complicate the apparent relation between figure, customer, and spectator. He maintained contact with Impressionist painters but continued to seek Salon recognition rather than exhibiting in their independent group shows.