Fishing

Edouard Manet French

On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 810

This enigmatic work is a tribute by Manet to Peter Paul Rubens and Annibale Carracci, painters from centuries past whose landscapes he admired. He had been counseled by his fellow French artist Eugène Delacroix: “Look at Rubens, draw inspiration from Rubens, copy Rubens. Rubens was God.”
Here, Manet depicts himself in seventeenth-century costume in the foreground beside Suzanne Leenhoff, whom he married in 1863. The painting may have been created in celebration of their union. On the opposite bank is a young fisherman, a figure for whom Suzanne’s son, Léon, posed. Manet had concealed his relationship with Suzanne from his father, who died in September 1862; Fishing was likely made between that date and their wedding in October 1863.

Fishing, Edouard Manet (French, Paris 1832–1883 Paris), Oil on canvas

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