The Railway

1870s

Refuses to exhibit with the Impressionists

Although his own work influenced and anticipated the Impressionist style, Manet resisted involvement in Impressionist exhibitions: he did not wish to be seen as the representative of a group identity and held that modern artists should seek to exhibit at the Salon.

1871

Manet's name on the Commune's Fédération des artistes

In his absence his friends added his name to the Paris Commune's “Fédération des artistes”; he himself stayed out of politics and perhaps returned to the city only after the “bloody week” — in a letter to Berthe Morisot of 10 June he writes that they had come back a few days earlier.

1871

Oloron and Bordeaux: letters to Bracquemond

In January 1871 Manet travelled to Oloron-Sainte-Marie in the Pyrenees and then visited Bordeaux, the provisional seat of the National Assembly, where Émile Zola showed him the sights. On 18 March he wrote to Félix Bracquemond that he had never imagined France could be represented by such doddering old fools.

1873

“Le Bon Bock”: a huge success

In his new studio in 1873 Manet painted “Le Bon Bock”, which became famous: for the first time in almost fifteen years he had a huge success, yet he did not turn into a fashionable, opportunistic painter.

1874

“The Railway”: ridicule at the Salon of 1874

“The Railway”, painted in 1873, puzzled visitors and critics at the Salon of 1874: its subject seemed baffling, its composition incoherent and its execution sketchy; caricaturists ridiculed it, and only later was it recognised as a symbol of modernity. The model was Victorine Meurent, for the last time.