Manet/Degas

Wolohojian, Stephan, and Ashley Dunn, with contributions by Stéphane Guégan, Denise Murrell, Haley S. Pierce, Isolde Pludermacher, and Samuel Rodary
2023
316 pages
259 illustrations
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Friends, rivals, and at times antagonists, Édouard Manet and Edgar Degas maintained a pictorial dialogue throughout their lives as they both worked to define the painting of modern urban life. Manet/Degas, the first book to consider their careers in parallel, investigates how their objectives overlapped, diverged, and shaped each other’s artistic choices. Enlivened by archival correspondence and records of firsthand accounts, essays by American and French scholars take a fresh look at the artists’ family relationships, literary friendships, and interconnected social and intellectual circles in Paris; explore their complex depictions of race and class; discuss their political views in the context of wars in France and the United States; compare their artistic practices; and examine how Degas built his personal collection of works by Manet after his friend’s premature death. An illustrated biographical chronology charts their intersecting lives and careers. This lavishly illustrated, in-depth study offers an opportunity to reevaluate some of the most canonical French artworks of the nineteenth century, including Manet’s Olympia, Degas’s The Absinthe Drinker, and other masterworks.

The Funeral, Edouard Manet  French, Oil on canvas
Edouard Manet
ca. 1867
Bookshelves, Study for "Edmond Duranty", Edgar Degas  French, Dark brown chalk, heightened with white chalk, on blue laid paper, faded to beige
Edgar Degas
1879
Silentium, Edouard Manet  French, Etching on blue laid paper, final state (II)
Edouard Manet
1862–64
Plate 26  from "The Disasters of War" (Los Desastres de la Guerra): 'One can't look' (No se puede mirar), Goya (Francisco de Goya y Lucientes)  Spanish, Etching, burnished lavis, drypoint, burin
Goya (Francisco de Goya y Lucientes)
1810 (published 1863)
Rue Transnonain,  le 15 Avril, 1834, Plate 24 of l'Association mensuelle, Honoré Daumier  French, Lithograph
Honoré Daumier
Delaunois
July 1834
Édouard Manet, Seated, Holding His Hat, Edgar Degas  French, Graphite and black chalk
Edgar Degas
Edouard Manet
ca. 1868
Édouard Manet, Seated, Turned to the Left, Edgar Degas  French, Etching; first state of two
Edgar Degas
Edouard Manet
ca. 1868
Tassel, Metal thread, Italian
Italian
17th century
Édouard Manet, Seated, Right Profile, Edgar Degas  French, Black chalk on faded pink wove paper
Edgar Degas
Edouard Manet
ca. 1868
Édouard Manet, Bust-Length Portrait, Edgar Degas  French, Etching, drypoint, and aquatint; third state of four
Edgar Degas
Edouard Manet
ca. 1868
Copy after Delacroix's "Bark of Dante", Edouard Manet  French, Oil on canvas
Edouard Manet
ca. 1859
The Infanta Margarita, after Velázquez, Edgar Degas  French, Etching and drypoint; second state of two (only known impression)
Edgar Degas
Velázquez (Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez)
ca. 1861–62
Study of a Draped Figure, Edgar Degas  French, Graphite heightened with white gouache
Edgar Degas
1857–58
The Old Italian Woman, Edgar Degas  French, Oil on canvas
Edgar Degas
1857
Young Man, Seated, in a Velvet Beret, after Rembrandt, Edgar Degas  French, Etching; only state
Edgar Degas
Rembrandt (Rembrandt van Rijn)
1857
Self-Portrait, Edgar Degas  French, Etching and bitten tone; second state of four
Edgar Degas
Edgar Degas
1857
Fishing, Edouard Manet  French, Oil on canvas
Edouard Manet
ca. 1862–63
Marguerite De Gas, the Artist's Sister, Edgar Degas  French, Etching and drypoint; unique impression of the second state of six
Edgar Degas
1860–62
Boy with a Sword, Edouard Manet  French, Oil on canvas
Edouard Manet
1861
Study for “Madame Théodore Gobillard” (Yves Morisot), Edgar Degas  French, Graphite
Edgar Degas
Madame Théodore Gobillard
1869
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Wolohojian, Stephan, Ashley Elizabeth Dunn, Stéphane Guégan, Denise Murrell, Haley S. Pierce, Isolde Pludermacher, Samuel Rodary, John Goodman, Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.), and Musée d’Orsay, eds. 2023. Manet/Degas. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.