This pastel, executed in one sitting, depicts the Irish critic and novelist George Moore. He used it as the frontispiece for his book Modern Painting (1893), noting that as "a fresh-complexioned, fair-haired young man, the type most suitable to Manet's palette, [the artist] at once asked [him] to sit." Critics ridiculed this work when it was exhibited in 1880, calling it "Le Noyé repêché" (the drowned man fished out of the water). The picture is Manet’s only completed portrait of Moore; one of his unfinished canvases, George Moore at the Café (55.193), is in the Museum's collection.
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Title:George Moore (1852–1933)
Artist:Edouard Manet (French, Paris 1832–1883 Paris)
Date:1879
Medium:Pastel on canvas
Dimensions:21 3/4 x 13 7/8 in. (55.2 x 35.2 cm)
Classification:Drawings
Credit Line:H. O. Havemeyer Collection, Bequest of Mrs. H. O. Havemeyer, 1929
Object Number:29.100.55
Inscription: Signed (lower left): Manet
the artist, Paris (d. 1883; his estate sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, February 4–5, 1884, no. 96, for Fr 1,800 to Jacob); private collection, Paris (probably until 1896; sold for Fr 10,000 through Alphonse Portier to Havemeyer); Mr. and Mrs. H. O. Havemeyer, New York (probably from 1896–his d. 1907); Mrs. H. O. (Louisine W.) Havemeyer, New York (1907–d. 1929; cat., 1931, pp. 148–49, ill.)
Paris. La vie moderne. "Œuvres nouvelles d'Édouard Manet," April 1880, no. 15 (as "Portrait de M. G. M.") [see Wilson-Bareau 1991].
Paris. École Nationale des Beaux-Arts. "Exposition des œuvres de Édouard Manet," January 6–28, 1884, no. 153 (lent by Mme Manet) [see Tabarant 1930].
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The H. O. Havemeyer Collection," March 10–November 2, 1930, no. 182 [2nd ed., 1958, no. 162].
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Impressionist Epoch," December 12, 1974–February 10, 1975, not in catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Manet, 1832–1883," September 10–November 27, 1983.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Splendid Legacy: The Havemeyer Collection," March 27–June 20, 1993, no. A360.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Manet / Degas," September 24, 2023–January 7, 2024, unnumbered cat. (colorpl. 66).
LOAN OF THIS WORK IS RESTRICTED.
Gustave Goetschy. "Édouard Manet." La vie moderne no. 16 (April 17, 1880), p. 250.
Paul Alexis. "Manet." La revue moderne et naturaliste (1880), p. 293, calls it "si original dans son étrangeté britannique" (so original in its British strangeness).
"Chronique." Le Temps 20 (April 10, 1880), p. 2, as "le vigoureux portrait de M. G. M . . . " (the vigorous portrait of Mr. G. M . . . ").
Edmond Bazire. Manet. Paris, 1884, p. 118.
Antonin Proust. "Édouard Manet: Souvenirs." La revue blanche 12 (February–May 1897), p. 201, gives Manet's account of Moore's requests for changes to the portrait and the painter's refusal, noting Manet's comment that it was not his fault that Moore looked like the broken yellow of an egg and that his face was all lopsided; notes that Manet considered the portrait complete after one sitting.
George Moore. Modern Painting. New York, 1898, ill. (frontispiece).
Théodore Duret. Histoire d'Édouard Manet et de son œuvre. Paris, 1902, pp. 136, 159, 298, no. 67, ill.
Etienne Moreau-Nélaton. Manuscrit de l'œuvre d'Édouard Manet, peinture et pastels. [1906], unpaginated, no. 362 [Département des Estampes, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris].
George Moore. "Erinnerungen an die Impressionisten." Kunst und Künstler 5 (October 1906), p. 20, ill.
André Chatté. "Notes sur Manet: V. la vente Manet en 1884 (4 et 5 Fevrier)." Journal des curieux 3 (March 10, 1907), p. 13.
Erich Hancke. "Manet als Porträtmaler." Kunst und Künstler 8 (February 1910), p. 248.
Julius Meier-Graefe. Edouard Manet. Munich, 1912, pp. 272, 326, no. 96, reprints the catalogue of the Manet sale of 1884.
Théodore Duret. Manet and the French Impressionists. 2nd ed. [1st ed. 1910]. London, 1912, p. 254, no. 67.
Jacques-Emile Blanche. De David à Degas. Paris, 1919, p. 149, criticizes it harshly.
Etienne Moreau-Nélaton. Manet raconté par lui-même. Paris, 1926, vol. 2, p. 65, figs. 259 and 347, illustrates this portrait hanging in the 1884 posthumous exhibition.
Jacques-Emile Blanche. Mes modèles. Paris, 1928, pp. 210–11, dates it about 1880; comments that in this portrait Moore was referred to as "le Noyé rêpeché" and remarks that it looks like a caricature.
A. Tabarant. "Les Manet de la collection Havemeyer." La Renaissance 13 (February 1930), pp. 73–74, ill., notes that it was lent to the 1884 exhibition by Mme Manet.
A. Tabarant. Manet, histoire catalographique. Paris, 1931, p. 468, no. 30.
Paul Jamot and Georges Wildenstein. Manet. Paris, 1932, vol. 1, p. 164, no. 365; vol. 2, fig. 207.
Paul Colin. Édouard Manet. Paris, 1932, p. 74, dates it 1879.
A. Tabarant. "Les quatre-vingts ans de George Moore." L'œuvre (October 9, 1932), ill. [see Ref. Sterling and Salinger 1967].
Jacques-Emile Blanche. Portraits of a Lifetime: The Late Victorian Era, The Edwardian Pageant, 1870–1914. [reprint; 1st ed. 1937]. 1938, pp. 136–37.
Gotthard Jedlicka. Édouard Manet. Zürich, 1941, pp. 117–19, 281, ill. opp. p. 289.
Douglas Cooper. "George Moore and Modern Art." Horizon: A review of literature and art 11 (February 1945), p. 120.
A. Tabarant. Manet et ses œuvres. 4th ed. (1st. ed. 1942). Paris, 1947, pp. 360–61, 376, 546, no. 475, fig. 475.
John Rewald. Édouard Manet: Pastels. Oxford, 1947, pp. 37, 48, 56, fig. 1 (color).
S. Lane Faison, Jr. "Manet's Portrait of Zola." Magazine of Art 42 (May 1949), p. 168, fig. 15, compares it to Manet's self-portrait of 1878 (Jacob Goldschmidt collection, New York).
George Heard Hamilton. Manet and His Critics. New Haven, 1954, p. 227.
Georges Bataille. Manet: Biographical and Critical Study. New York, 1955, pp. 116–17, 120, ill. (color).
Margaretta Salinger. "Manet and George Moore." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 15 (January 1957), pp. 117–19, ill. (on cover in color), suggests that this is the portrait "in which Moore fancied his Englishness was beginning to wane".
Kurt Martin. Édouard Manet: Aquarelle und Pastelle. Basel, 1958, unpaginated, no. 21, ill. (color).
Louisine W. Havemeyer. Sixteen to Sixty: Memoirs of a Collector. New York, 1961, pp. 234–36, recounts the circumstances of the purchase of this picture, noting that they paid Fr 10,000 for it and stating that George Moore expressed his dislike of this portrait to Mary Cassatt.
John Rewald. The History of Impressionism. rev., enl. ed. New York, 1961, pp. 401–2, ill.
Pierre Courthion. Edouard Manet. New York, 1962, pp. 138–39, ill. (color).
Henri Perruchot. Édouard Manet. New York, 1962, pp. 68, 73–74, ill.
Ronald Pickvance. "A Newly Discovered Drawing by Degas of George Moore." Burlington Magazine 105 (June 1963), pp. 278–79, fig. 40, comments that Manet's portraits of Moore are "now generally agreed to have been executed in 1879".
Charles Sterling and Margaretta M. Salinger. French Paintings: A Catalogue of the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Vol. 3, XIX–XX Centuries. New York, 1967, pp. 48–50, ill., date it probably 1879, noting that it was made after Moore's stay in Paris; remark that it is the most finished of the three portraits that Manet made of Moore and is usually regarded as the definitive one; note that this work was known as "le noyé repêche".
Sandra Orienti inThe Complete Paintings of Manet. New York, 1967, pp. 110–11, no. 278B, ill.
Merete Bodelsen. "Early Impressionist Sales 1874–94 in the Light of some Unpublished 'procès verbaux'." Burlington Magazine 110 (June 1968), p. 341–42, publishes the original record of Manet's posthumous sale of 1884 (Archives de la Seine, Paris), which states that Jacob paid Fr 1,800 for this picture.
Pierre Schneider. The World of Manet, 1832–1883. New York, 1968, pp. 136, 187, ill., and color detail on slipcase.
John Rewald. "Should Hoving Be De-accessioned?" Art in America 61 (January–February 1973), p. 27.
Carl R. Baldwin. The Impressionist Epoch. Exh. brochure, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. [New York], 1974, p. 27.
Denis Rouart and Daniel Wildenstein. Édouard Manet, catalogue raisonné. Paris, 1975, vol. 2, pp. 4–5, no. 11, ill.
Paul Abe Isaacs. "The Immobility of the Self in the Art of Edouard Manet: A Study with Special Emphasis on the Relationship of his Imagery to That of Gustave Flaubert and Stephane Mallarmé." PhD diss., Brown University, 1977, pp. 456–58, fig. V-21a.
Lillian Browse. Forain: The Painter, 1852–1931. London, 1978, p. 98, under no. 6, mentiones a portrait of Moore in the MMA, probably this one, in cataloguing Forain's "Une loge à l'opéra (called 'George Moore leaving the Opera')" (Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, Mass.) of about 1880.
Peter Krieger inMax Liebermann in seiner Zeit. Exh. cat., Nationalgalerie Berlin. Berlin, 1979, p. 64, discusses the copy Max Liebermann made after it in 1898 after trying unsuccessfully to acquire it.
Matthias Eberle inMax Liebermann in seiner Zeit. Exh. cat., Nationalgalerie Berlin. Berlin, 1979, p. 422, under no. 161, reproduces both Max Liebermann's copy after Manet's picture (p. 423, private collection) and a photograph of Liebermann in his studio with his copy of Manet's picture on the wall behind him (p. 110).
Charles S. Moffett inManet, 1832–1883. Ed. Françoise Cachin and Charles S. Moffett. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1983, pp. 427–29, no. 176, colorpl. 176 [French ed., Paris].
Juliet Wilson-Bareau in Charles S. Moffett and Françoise Cachin. Manet, 1832–1883. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1983, p. 412 [French ed., Paris].
Denys Sutton. "Édouard Manet: The Artist as Dandy." Apollo 118 (October 1983), pp. 337–38, ill. (in color on cover).
Jean-Jacques Lévêque. Manet. Paris, 1983, p. 138, ill. p. 139 (color).
Charles S. Moffett. Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1985, pp. 44–45, ill. (color).
Frances Weitzenhoffer. The Havemeyers: Impressionism Comes to America. New York, 1986, pp. 115–16, 256 n. 15, pl. 70, repeats the story that Cassatt told the Havemeyers when they bought this picture: that Manet had invited Moore to come work in his studio, but only so that he could study him and make this portrait.
Éric Darragon. Manet. Paris, 1989, pp. 314, 323–24.
Françoise Cachin. Manet. [Paris], 1990, pp. 135, 158, fig. 6 (color), dates it 1878–79 and erroneously notes that it was a gift to the MMA from Mrs. Ralph J. Hines.
Juliet Wilson-Bareau. Manet by Himself, Correspondence & Conversation: Paintings, Pastels, Prints & Drawings. Boston, 1991, pp. 184, 245, 310 no. 137, colorpl. 137, dates it about 1878–79 and associates it with Antonin Proust's notes on his conversations with Manet (later published in Proust 1897), which she dates to 1878.
Sarah Carr-Gomm. Manet. London, 1992, pp. 128–29, ill. (color).
Louisine W. Havemeyer. Sixteen to Sixty: Memoirs of a Collector. Ed. Susan Alyson Stein. 3rd ed. [1st ed. 1930, repr. 1961]. New York, 1993, pp. 233–36, 334 n. 339.
Susan Alyson Stein inSplendid Legacy: The Havemeyer Collection. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1993, p. 220.
Gary Tinterow inSplendid Legacy: The Havemeyer Collection. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1993, p. 27, colorpl. 26.
Vivien Perutz. Edouard Manet. Lewisburg, Pa., 1993, pp. 194–96, colorpl. 53, compares it to Manet's portrait of Henri Rochefort (Kunsthalle, Hamburg).
Gretchen Wold inSplendid Legacy: The Havemeyer Collection. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1993, p. 356–37, no. A360, ill.
Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born Before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 446, ill.
Hans Körner. Edouard Manet: Dandy, Flaneur, Maler. Munich, 1996, pp. 171–72, fig. 145.
Gary Tinterow inLa collection Havemeyer: Quand l'Amérique découvrait l'impressionnisme. Exh. cat., Musée d'Orsay. Paris, 1997, pp. 52–53, 108, fig. 22.
Thomas W. Gaehtgens. Max Liebermann: Jahrhundertwende. Exh. cat., Alte Nationalgalerie. Berlin, 1997, p. 147, fig. 4, discusses a copy made by Liebermann in 1898 (private collection).
Tobias G. Natter and Julius H. Schoeps inMax Liebermann und die französischen Impressionisten. Ed. Tobias G. Natter. Exh. cat., Jüdisches Museum der Stadt Wien. Vienna, 1997, p. 214, ill.
Carol Armstrong. Manet Manette. New Haven, 2002, p. 250.
Walter Liedtke. "Frans Hals: Style and Substance." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 69 (Summer 2011), p. 44, fig. 44 (color).
Thomas W. Gaehtgens in "Liebermann and Impressionism?" Max Liebermann and International Modernism: An Artist's Career from Empire to Third Reich. Ed. Marion Deshmukh, Françoise Forster-Hahn, and Barbara Gaehtgens. New York, 2011, pp. 55, 60 n. 16.
MaryAnne Stevens inManet: Portraying Life. Exh. cat., Toledo Museum of Art. London, 2012, pp. 21, 189, under no. 32.
Angelika Wesenberg inVerlorene Schätze: Die Kunstsammlung von Max Liebermann. Ed. Martin Faass. Berlin, 2013, pp. 45–46, discusses a copy Max Liebermann made after it and reproduces a photograph (fig. 24) of the close copy hanging in Liebermann's studio near his easel as Liebermann's way of appropriating a work that he had hoped to buy.
Annegret Janda inVerlorene Schätze: Die Kunstsammlung von Max Liebermann. Ed. Martin Faass. Berlin, 2013, pp. 13, 27 n. 18, p. 28 n. 46, discusses the copy Max Liebermann made after it.
Sigrid Achenbach inVerlorene Schätze: Die Kunstsammlung von Max Liebermann. Ed. Martin Faass. Berlin, 2013, pp. 76, 87 nn. 8, 24, discusses the copy Liebermann made after it in 1898.
Bärbel Hedinger inMax Liebermann: Die Kunstsammlung, von Rembrandt bis Manet. Ed. Bärbel Hedinger et al. Munich, 2013, p. 28, notes that Max Liebermann tried to capture the brushstrokes and light effects of the original pastel in his oil copy of it.
Max Liebermann: Die Kunstsammlung, von Rembrandt bis Manet. Ed. Bärbel Hedinger et al. Munich, 2013, p. 272, under no. SL107, reproduce same photograph including Liebermann's copy as in Wesenberg 2013 (pp. 156–57).
Marie Lozón de Cantelmi inSignac: Les couleurs de l'eau. Ed. Marina Ferretti-Bocquillon. Exh. cat., Musée des Impressionnismes Giverny. Paris, 2013, pp. 46, 51 n. 18, quotes Signac's comparison of the picture to Delacroix's portrait of Alfred Bruyas (1853, Musée Fabre, Montpellier) and notes that Signac could have seen The Met's picture at Paris 1880 or Paris 1884; remarks upon the sitters' shared red hair and beards.
MaryAnne Stevens inDegas: Klassik und Experiment. Ed. Alexander Eiling. Exh. cat., Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe. Munich, 2014, pp. 48, 52 n. 39, fig. 8 (color).
Philippe Saunier in Thea Burns Philippe Saunier. L'art du pastel. Paris, 2014, ill. p. 254 (color detail).
Helen Burnham and Genevieve Westerby inManet Paintings and Works on Paper at the Art Institute of Chicago. Ed. Gloria Groom and Genevieve Westerby. Chicago, 2019, under no. 18 [https://publications.artic.edu/manet/reader/manetart/section/140048].
David Pullins. Manet: Three Paintings from the Norton Simon Museum. Exh. cat., Frick Collection. New York, 2019, pp. 75, 79 n. 61, fig. 31 (color).
Stephan Wolohojian and Ashley E. Dunn. Manet/Degas. Exh. cat., Musée d'Orsay, Paris. New York, 2023, p. 299, colorpl. 66.
Samuel Rodary and Haley S. Pierce in Stephan Wolohojian and Ashley E. Dunn. Manet/Degas. Exh. cat., Musée d'Orsay, Paris. New York, 2023, p. 284.
This pastel, executed in one sitting, depicts the celebrated Irish critic and novelist George Moore, who was in Paris from 1873 until the end of 1879. During that time Manet made at least three more portraits of him, including an unfinished oil sketch also in The Met (55.193).
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