The noted baritone and collector Jean-Baptiste Faure posed for Manet in the winter of 1882–83. Among the artist's last canvases are this study and another (59.129) that were made in preparation for a portrait left unfinished at the time of Manet's death in April 1883.
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Title:Jean-Baptiste Faure (1830–1914)
Artist:Edouard Manet (French, Paris 1832–1883 Paris)
Date:1882–83
Medium:Oil on canvas
Dimensions:23 1/4 x 19 1/2 in. (59.1 x 49.5 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Gift of Mr. and Mrs. William B. Jaffe, 1950
Object Number:50.71.1
Manet estate, Paris (1883–84; ?inv., 1884, as "Faure (esquisse)"; sold to Eddy); Arthur Jerome Eddy, Chicago (1884–his d. 1920); his son, Jerome Eddy, Chicago (1920–about 1931; sold to Thomson); [William H. Thomson, Thomson Galleries, Detroit, about 1931–about 1936/37; sold to Weitzner]; [Julius Weitzner, New York, from about 1936/37–at least 1944]; Mr. and Mrs. William B. Jaffe, New York (until 1950)
San Francisco. Gump's Galleries. "Exhibition of Paintings from the Fifteenth Century to the Twentieth Century," July 10–?, 1944, no. 53 (lent by Julius Weitzner).
Clearwater. Florida Artist Group, Inc. December 1, 1950–March 31, 1951, no catalogue?
Paris. Musée d'Orsay. "Manet, inventeur du Moderne," April 5–July 17, 2011, no. 122.
Madrid. Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza. "The Impressionists and Photography," October 15, 2019–January 26, 2020, no. 130.
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.
Arthur J. Eddy. "Édouard Manet, Painter." Brush and Pencil 1 (February 1898), p. 139, ill., illustrates this picture before it was cut at the bottom.
Etienne Moreau-Nélaton. Manuscrit de l'œuvre d'Édouard Manet, peinture et pastels. [1906], unpaginated, probably no. 327 or 328 [Département des Estampes, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris], as "Faure en costume de ville" [Ref. Jamot and Wildenstein 1932 identifies this picture as no. 328].
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, argues 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. 123–24, 300, supp. cat. no. 5.
A. Tabarant. Manet, histoire catalographique. Paris, 1931, p. 440, no. 415, dates it 1883; catalogues a portrait of Faure by describing the Lochard photograph (no. 102) and basing his information on the reverse of the photograph; assumes that this is Manet's last study of Faure and one of his last works.
Paul Jamot and Georges Wildenstein. Manet. Paris, 1932, vol. 1, p. 181, no. 519; vol. 2, fig. 473, illustrate the Lochard photograph, identify it as a portrait of Faure but erroneously associate it with the pictured catalogued by Duret as "Tête d'homme" (1926, cat. suppl. no. 5) and wrongly state that it belonged to Faure.
A. Tabarant. Manet et ses œuvres. 4th ed. (1st. ed. 1942). Paris, 1947, pp. 463–64, 545, no. 440, fig. 440, lists it with works dated 1882–83; notes that it once belonged to Faure, but that its present whereabouts are unknown.
Josephine L. Allen and Elizabeth E. Gardner. A Concise Catalogue of the European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1954, p. 63.
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. 53–54, ill., comment that the annotations on the reverse of the Lochard photograph are larger than for this work and that the eyes do not appear as finished, but note that the MMA painting was cut at the bottom and the sides, which accounts for the discrepancy, and suggest that the difference in the eyes and other details could be a result of restoration.
Sandra Orienti inThe Complete Paintings of Manet. New York, 1967, pp. 120–21, no. 414B, 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, p. 62, remarks that this is one of three "partially-finished oil studies" for a portrait that Faure commissioned in December 1881, but that Manet did not begin until late in 1882 and never completed; notes that there is no evidence that Faure owned this picture.
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), pp. 168, 177 n. 73.
Denis Rouart and Daniel Wildenstein. Édouard Manet, catalogue raisonné. Paris, 1975, vol. 1, pp. 288–89, no. 390, ill., publish the wrong dimensions for this picture and erroneously place it in a private collection, France.
Theodore Reff. "Review of Rouart and Wildenstein 1975." Art Bulletin 58 (December 1976), p. 637, notes Rouart and Wildenstein's incorrect information about this picture.
Anne Distel. Impressionism: The First Collectors. New York, 1990, p. 83, colorpl. 75, dates it 1882 and notes that it was one of Manet's last works.
Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born Before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 447, ill.
Simon Kelly inManet, inventeur du Moderne. Exh. cat., Musée d'Orsay. Paris, 2011, pp. 62, 279, no. 122, colorpl. 25, lists Faure in the provenance [see Ref. Callen 1971 and provenance for MMA 59.129].
MaryAnne Stevens inManet: Portraying Life. Exh. cat., Toledo Museum of Art. London, 2012, p. 110.
Paloma Alarcó. The Impressionists and Photography. Exh. cat., Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza. Madrid, 2019, p. 185, no. 130, ill. p. 211 (color), calls the setting and lighting reminiscent of a photographer's studio.
Clara Marcellán inThe Impressionists and Photography. Exh. cat., Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza. Madrid, 2019, p. 279, no. 130.
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 oil sketches for it, two in The Met (this work and 59.129) and a third whose whereabouts are unknown (Rouart and Wildenstein 1975, no. 389). This work was significantly cut down sometime after 1898 (see Eddy 1898).
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 The Met 59.129; however, Callen (1971 and 1974) claims that that 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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