Manet: A Model Family

Every artist has their muses. For Édouard Manet (1832-1883), one of thoses muses was family. But the home life of the French painter was complicated, even by today’s standards. Manet: A Model Family, on view in the Hostetter Gallery from October 10, 2024 – January 20, 2025, explores how despite complexities between relatives, the Manet family lived happily—from a wife who had once been in the household’s employ to a child of questionable paternity to a mother who disinherited Édouard’s surviving kin. They were also the artist’s most frequent models, a crucial source of financial and emotional support, as well as creative inspiration. Immortalized in groundbreaking bold brushstrokes, Édouard Manet's loved ones enriched his life and his art. After his death, they cultivated his legacy and ensured that his work would never be forgotten. 

Now, nearly 150 years since his passing, Manet: A Model Family at the Gardner Museum is the first exhibition to explore Manet through the lens of the complex familial relationships between and amongst the artist and his sitters, shedding new light on the life and masterpieces of the “father of modernism.”