Édouard ManetFrancia, 1832–1883Letter Decorated with a Snail on a Leaf
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With its piquant design of fresh greens and yellows applied over delicate gray wash, this illustrated letter exemplifies Manet's late watercolor practice. The snail perched on a leaf offers a laconic metaphor for the artist's situation in the summer of 1880, when he found himself more or less trapped in his Bellevue garden by a paralyzed leg that slowed his movements to a snail's pace. A horizontal crease through the middle of this sheet confirms that it was folded to fit in an envelope and sent ("snail mail") to an unnamed female friend. Although the identity of the letter's fair recipient remains uncertain, Manet's instruction not to “forget the ream of English paper" is clear enough. His new interest in watercolor necessitated a continuous supply of paper, often brought by visitors from Paris. For the artist and his contemporaries, watercolor was a quintessentially English medium; he used an English-made watercolor set, and many of his illustrated letters—including this one—bear English watermarks.
Getty Museum
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- 2019.7
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- Getty Museum
- Immagine: Getty Museum — Open Content
Nella vita di Édouard Manet
Tutta la vita1870s
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.
1879 · Residenza
8th arrondissement of Paris
1879
The Salon warmly receives “In the Conservatory” and “In the Boat”
Only in 1879 did the Salon appreciate Manet's perseverance: his canvases “In the Conservatory” and “In the Boat” were received very warmly.
1879
The first attack of rheumatism and ataxia
In September 1879 Manet suffered his first acute attack of rheumatism; it soon turned out that he had ataxia, a disorder of movement coordination. The illness progressed rapidly and limited his creative possibilities.
1879
“The Execution of Maximilian” first shown in New York
In December 1879 the singer Émilie Ambre and her lover Gaston de Beauplan organised in New York the first exhibition of “The Execution of Emperor Maximilian”.
December 1881
The Légion d'honneur
In December 1881, at the recommendation of Antonin Proust, his childhood friend and the new minister, Manet was awarded the Légion d'honneur.
