Venice: Pre-Biennale - MUST SEEs – Palazzo Ducale –
Manet Returns to Venice exhibition. In the splendid rooms of the Palazzo
Ducale, until August 18, the exhibition, Manet Returns to Venice is organized by the Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia in
collaboration with the Musée D’Orsay in
Paris, it is curated by Stephane Guegan, with
the scientific direction of Guy Cogeval and Gabriella Belli, eighty paintings, drawings and prints, some
of which have never left France before, are on show.
Above: Edouard
Manet - The Grand Canal, Venice, 1874, oil on canvas. Manet
was already a famous painter, in 1874, the year of the first Exhibition of
Impressionist Painters,was also the year of his third voyage to Italy and of his return to Venice which he
immortalized in two small canvases showing the Grand Canal. In these pictures,
we seem to sense the already very modern atmosphere of the late Guardi; in the
small but masterly works, which served as a model for much Venetian painting
towards the end of the 19th century, the air is so transparent as to make the
blues and whites of his palette dance as never before.
Palazzo
Ducale – Manet Returns to Venice. The exhibition arises from a need to
undertake a critical survey of the
cultural models that inspired the young Manet. These models, have
hitherto referred almost exclusively to the influence of Spanish painting on
his art, actually included much Italian Renaissance art, as the Venetian
exhibition shows: alongside his masterpieces, there are a series of exceptional
studies inspired by great 16th-century Venetian paintings, from Titian to
Tintoretto and Lotto in particular. The
exhibition also highlights, his close links with Italy and Venice. His Le Déjeuner sur l’Herbe and Olympia
(1863) are clearly variations on Titian and are both splendid examples of Manet’s
links with Italian art.
Above.
Edouard Manet – Olympia, 1863, oil on canvas and Titian – Venus of Urbino, 1538
oil on canvas. The exceptional
juxtaposition of Titan’s Venus of Urbino and Manet’s Olympia highlights the
special role that 16th century Venetian painting had on Manet.
Edouard
Manet – The Fifer, 1866, oil on canvas.
Palazzo
Ducale – Manet Returns to Venice.
Between Music and Theatre room.
Edouard
Manet – Masked Ball at the Opera, 1873-1874, oil on canvas.
In Manet’s famous Masked Ball
at the Opera, which was rejected that same year by the jury of the
Parisian Salon, appears the same dance of masked lovers and ambiguous players
that he must have known through the work of the Venetian Pietro Longhi.
Palazzo
Ducale – Manet Returns to Venice. Eduoard Manet – Portrait of Emile Zola, 1868,
oil on canvas and Lorenzo Lotto – Portrait of a young Gentleman in his Study,
1530c., oil on canvas.
Palazzo
Ducale – Manet Returns to Venice.
Eduoard Manet – On the Beach, 1873, oil on canvas. Painted during a
holiday at the sea, it shows Suzanne from behind, absorbed in reading, and Manet’s
brother Eugene in the same position he was portrayed ten years earlier in the
Dejeuner. Both turn their backs to the
observer and seem isolated in their thoughts.
The painting, although painted outside, is a long way from the
Impressionist spirit. The composition
refers to Andrea del Sarto’s Madonna del Sacco; carefully copied earlier in
1857.
Palazzo
Ducale – Manet Returns to Venice.
Eduoard Manet – At the cafe, Study of Legs, 1880, watercolor on squared
paper.
Palazzo
Ducale – Manet Returns to Venice.
Eduoard Manet – Berthe Morisot with a Bouquet of Violets. This is one of the four portraits of Berthe
and one of his masterpieces. Here the
intense, lateral light combines with the virtuoso use of blacks. The painting also heralds the pastels of the
following years, linked to the representation of Parisian fashion of the time.
Palazzo
Ducale – Manet Returns to Venice.
Eduoard Manet – The Lemon, 1880-1881, oil on canvas.