Painted in the winter of 1882–83, this study of the baritone Jean-Baptiste Faure was one of three executed in preparation for a portrait left unfinished when Manet died a few months later. Earlier, Manet had painted a full-length portrait of the singer in the role of Hamlet (Folkwang Museum, Essen), which drew adverse criticism when it was shown in the Salon of 1877; Faure, who owned many paintings by Manet, refused to accept it.
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Title:Head of Jean-Baptiste Faure (1830–1914)
Artist:Edouard Manet (French, Paris 1832–1883 Paris)
Date:1882–83
Medium:Oil on canvas
Dimensions:18 1/8 x 14 7/8 in. (46 x 37.8 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Gift of Mrs. Ralph J. Hines, 1959
Object Number:59.129
the sitter, Paris (1883–d. 1914; gift of Léon Leenhoff to Faure June 21 or 29, 1883); his son, Maurice Faure, Paris (1914–d. 1915); his wife, Madame Maurice Faure, Paris (1915–at least 1924); her children, Jean and Pierre Faure, Paris (probably until 1928); [Georges Bernheim, Paris, probably from 1928]; Sacha Guitry, Paris (by 1931–51; sale, Galerie Charpentier, Paris, May 23, 1951, no. 3); [Van Diemen-Lilienfeld Galleries, New York, until 1959]; Mrs. Ralph J. Hines, New York (1959; life interest, 1959–d. 1961)
Paris. château de Bagatelle. "La musique, la danse," May 15–July 15, 1912, no. 86 (lent by J. B. Faure) [see Sterling and Salinger 1967].
Paris. Bernheim-Jeune. "Exposition d'œuvres de Manet au profit des 'Amis du Luxembourg'," April 14–May 4, 1928, no. 26 (lent by Maurice Faure or Sacha Guitry) [see Exh. 1928 and Tabarant 1947].
Paris. Bernheim-Jeune. "Cent ans de théâtre, music-hall, et cirque," May 25–July 13, 1936, no. 64 (lent by M. Sacha Guitry).
Nashville. Fisk University. "100 Years of European Painting," April 28–June 10, 1965, unnum. checklist.
THIS WORK MAY NOT BE LENT.
Inventaire après décès. June 18, 1883 [published in Ref. Jamot and Wildenstein 1932, vol. 1, p. 108], as "Faure (esquisse)," under "études peintes," possibly this picture.
Etienne Moreau-Nélaton. Manuscrit de l'œuvre d'Édouard Manet, peinture et pastels. [1906], unpaginated, no. 327 [Département des Estampes, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris].
Théodore Duret. "Les portraits peints par Manet et refusés par leurs modèles." La Renaissance no. 5 (July 1918), p. 152, remarks that Manet began the portrait Faure commissioned in 1882 many times, and that this picture might possibly be one of those attempts, but comments that the portrait was never completed.
Théodore Duret. Histoire d'Édouard Manet et de son œuvre. 4th ed. Paris, 1926, pp. 122–24, 300, supp. cat. no. 9.
A. Tabarant. Manet, histoire catalographique. Paris, 1931, p. 439, no. 413, considers this a fragment of an unfinished work, painted toward the end of 1882.
Paul Jamot and Georges Wildenstein. Manet. Paris, 1932, vol. 1, pp. 108, 181, no. 518; vol. 2, fig. 70, suggest that this is the sketch mentioned in the posthumous inventory of Manet's studio [see Ref. Manet 1883].
A. Tabarant. Manet et ses œuvres. 4th ed. (1st. ed. 1942). Paris, 1947, pp. 463–64, 545, no. 441, fig. 441, lists it with works dated 1882–83; except for the sitter's open eyes, considers it identical to the unfinished three-quarter length portrait (RW389; whereabouts unknown).
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. 52–53, ill.
Sandra Orienti inThe Complete Paintings of Manet. New York, 1967, pp. 120–21, no. 414C, ill., dates it to late December 1882 or early January 1883.
Anthea Callen. "Jean-Baptiste Faure, 1830–1914: A Study of a Patron and Collector of the Impressionists and their Contemporaries." Master's thesis, University of Leicester, 1971, pp. 62–63, 299–300, claims that Faure commissioned his portrait from Manet in December 1881, not 1882, and that, although the final version was never completed, this study was given to Faure in 1883 after Manet's death; adds that this picture was probably lent to the exhibition at the Galerie Bernheim-Jeune in 1928 by Jean and Pierre Faure, not Maurice [see Ref. Tabarant 1947], who died in 1915, and that they probably sold it to Bernheim after the exhibition.
John Rewald. "Should Hoving Be De-accessioned?" Art in America 61 (January–February 1973), p. 27.
Anthea Callen. "Faure and Manet." Gazette des beaux-arts 83 (March 1974), p. 168.
Denis Rouart and Daniel Wildenstein. Édouard Manet, catalogue raisonné. Paris, 1975, vol. 1, pp. 27, 288–89, no. 391, ill.
Charles F. Stuckey. "Manet Revised: Whodunit?" Art in America 71 (November 1983), pp. 171–72, 240 n. 69, ill. p. 173, suggests that it may have been cut out from any of the three portraits of Faure mentioned in Léon Leenhoff's register of the artist's paintings (Moreau-Nelaton archives, Cabinet des estampes, Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris).
Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born Before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 447, ill.
MaryAnne Stevens inManet: Portraying Life. Exh. cat., Toledo Museum of Art. London, 2012, p. 110.
Jacqueline Delubac, le choix de la modernité. Rodin, Lam, Picasso, Bacon. Ed. Salima Hellal. Exh. cat., Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon. Arles, 2014, p. 218, fig. 73 (color).
In December 1882 Manet wrote to Berthe Morisot that Jean-Baptiste Faure, noted baritone and collector, had commissioned another portrait. That portrait was never completed, but there are three known sketches for it, two in The Met (50.71.1 and 59.129) and a third whose whereabouts are unknown (Rouart and Wildenstein 1975, no. 389).
There is some confusion regarding the early history of these three works. The inventory of Manet's studio, made after his death in 1883, lists a study for a painting, "Faure (esquisse)." Jamot and Wildenstein (1932) suggest that it refers to this picture; however, Callen (1971 and 1974) claims that this study was given to Faure by Léon Leenhoff in April of 1883, based on a note in Leenhoff's notebook that says "Don à Faure - Ébauche de son portrait."
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