A major exhibition of Manet’s work opens at London's Royal Academy on Saturday. 'Manet: Portraying Life' (1832-1883) is the first ever retrospective devoted to the portraiture of Edouard Manet. Spanning the entire career of this enigmatic and at times controversial artist, the exhibition brings together works from across Europe, Asia and the USA.
Manet’s engagement with portraiture has never been explored in exhibition form before, despite it constituting around half of his artistic output. Manet painted his family, friends and the literary, political and artistic figures of his day, giving life not only to his subjects but also to Parisian society of the time.
The exhibition consists of more than 50 works, among them are portraits of Manet’s most frequent sitter, his wife Suzanne Leenhoff, luminaries of the period Antonin Proust, Émile Zola and Stéphane Mallarmé, and scenes from everyday life revealing Manet’s forward-thinking, modern approach to portraiture.
'Manet: Portraying Life' has been organised by the Royal Academy of Arts, London, in collaboration with the Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio. The exhibition has been curated by MaryAnne Stevens, Director of Academic Affairs, Royal Academy of Arts and Dr Larry Nichols, Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio.
The gallery will stay open until 11 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays to cope with anticipated demand, and the Academy is organizing "exclusive" Sunday evening viewings in March and April to allow visitors to see the show with smaller crowds.
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