The Tragic Actor

1865

“Olympia” at the Salon: a scandal

In 1865 the Salon accepted “Olympia”, and the frank depiction of a self-assured prostitute created a scandal; according to Antonin Proust, only the precautions taken by the administration prevented the painting from being punctured and torn. The popular press caricatured it, while the avant-garde, including Courbet, Cézanne and Monet, championed it.

after 1865

Café Guerbois and the Batignolles group

After returning from Spain Manet became a regular at the Café Guerbois in the Batignolles quarter, where Fantin-Latour, Whistler, Duranty, Degas, Renoir, Monet and Pissarro gathered, with Émile Zola as Manet's ardent defender. After harsh reproaches from Duranty, Manet challenged him to a duel and wounded him, but they made up and remained good friends until Manet's death.

1865

Flight to Spain: El Greco, Velázquez, Goya

The persecution after “Olympia” forced Manet to flee, almost literally, to Spain, where he spent his time to good purpose, getting to know the works of El Greco, Velázquez and Goya and finding in them a justification of his own aesthetic taste.

1867

His own pavilion near the Pont de l'Alma

In 1867, during the World's Fair in Paris, Manet set up his own pavilion near the Pont de l'Alma and showed fifty of his best works of the past ten years. Possibly this step led to his works being accepted at the next two Salons.

1867

Zola defends Manet in print

In 1867 Émile Zola, who supported Manet publicly in the press, wrote that the public was not accustomed to such simple and direct translations of reality and that this luminous and serious painting interprets nature with a gentle brutality.

1868

Friendship with Berthe Morisot

In 1868 Manet became a friend and colleague of Berthe Morisot; she is credited with convincing him to attempt plein air painting, to which Camille Corot had introduced her. Through Morisot, Manet became friends with Degas, Monet, Renoir, Sisley, Cézanne and Pissarro.