Édouard Manet (Paris, 1832 - 1883, Paris)
Madame Auguste Manet, 1863
Oil on canvas , 98 x 80 cm (38 9/16 x 31 1/2 in.)
General admission for children 17 years and under is always free
This vertical, oil on canvas painting depicts a light-skinned older woman sitting on a chair. The background is dark shades of gray. The dark veil over her brown hair is loose behind her, and falls to her chest. Her hair is parted in the center and has large waves that fall to her ears. Her eyes are light blue, and looking at us. Her faint gray eyebrows are slightly raised. The woman’s skin is pale, but has a light pink blush on her cheeks. Her high cheekbones are noticeable with the contour on her cheek. She looks stern with her thin, pink lips. We can see a single gold earring hanging from her left ear that seems to sparkle. Her long, dark greenish-black dress is tight around the chest and waist but hangs freely below her hips. It has different shades of green making the fabric look like velvet. Her hands rest on her lap, holding a gold pen. On her left hand she has a gold band on her ring finger. On her right hand she has another gold ring on her ring finger and a thick gold bracelet on her wrist. The frame of the chair is dark brown, but the chair back is upholstered with pink fabric. On the bottom left corner, above her dress, “Manet” is painted in black. The portrait rests in an ornately carved, gilded wooden frame filled with vines and flowers.
Blue Room
Commentary
This portrait of the artist’s mother, Eugénie-Désirée Fournier Manet, shows her dressed in mourning for her husband, who had died the year before. The thick swatches of black and dark gray paint that form the dress resonate against the lighter, flat paint of the face and hands. The painting is essentially monochromatic and possesses a solidity reminiscent of Manet’s beloved Velázquez. Bernard Berenson called the work “a colossal thing.”
Manet’s mother had encouraged his painting from the beginning, and she remained a close confidant. His stepson described the relationship between Manet and his mother as more than close: “Edouard Manet did not have just an ordinary filial affection for his mother, but rather a real obsession."
In 1909, Isabella Stewart Gardner asked Berenson to find her a portrait by Manet, perhaps to accompany her portrait of Madame Gaujelin by Degas. Both sitters present severe personalities, and both painters found an underlying sympathy beneath these formidable exteriors.
Source: Richard Lingner, "Portrait of Madame Auguste Manet," in Eye of the Beholder, edited by Alan Chong et al. (Boston: ISGM and Beacon Press, 2003): 193.
Manet’s mother had encouraged his painting from the beginning, and she remained a close confidant. His stepson described the relationship between Manet and his mother as more than close: “Edouard Manet did not have just an ordinary filial affection for his mother, but rather a real obsession."
In 1909, Isabella Stewart Gardner asked Berenson to find her a portrait by Manet, perhaps to accompany her portrait of Madame Gaujelin by Degas. Both sitters present severe personalities, and both painters found an underlying sympathy beneath these formidable exteriors.
Source: Richard Lingner, "Portrait of Madame Auguste Manet," in Eye of the Beholder, edited by Alan Chong et al. (Boston: ISGM and Beacon Press, 2003): 193.