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Art...

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ArtSleuth

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A man

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A woman

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A background of lavish greenery

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A painting by Manet

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Our first impression is of an urban Adam and Eve, …

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… or a moment of flirtation in the forest.

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But it all seems wrong

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Instead of being drawn to each other, the couple seem frozen.

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Instead of an earthly paradise or outdoor scene, we get potted plants in a Paris apartment.

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Parts of the picture itself seem merely sketched in.

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Manet appears to be gleefully bent on not giving us what we expect:

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instead of an erotically charged and highly worked image,....

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.... we get a married couple....

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.... with trouble on the way

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So why does Manet take such an interest in this Parisian pair's mixed-up feelings?

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"From “sex in the city” to modern painting"

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"*Part 1: Male fantasies*"

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First and foremost, the picture reflects an unbridgeable gap between:

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1) the woman, in front - beautiful, desirable and supremely elegant.

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With her grey jacket and pleated dress,

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she has something of the siren - or the crayfish in its shell.

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The bars at the back of the bench protect her against the indoor “jungle”

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and the urban satyr it shelters.

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2) and the man. Manet does everything to make him a secondary figure, submissive and harmless.

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A caged lion,

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cramped into stooping by the picture frame,

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he implores the sphinx-like woman to look at him.

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His faintly glimmering cigar looks fragile and pathetic

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beside her parasol

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he is, quite simply, outgunned.

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The only consolation, the only hopeful sign

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appears in the centre of the picture, between the two worlds:

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an ungloved hand, which he shyly moves to touch.

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There is also a dynamic progression from left to right.

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On the woman’s side, flowers, delicate foliage and sharp colours.

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On the man’s, darker colours and large, aggressive leaves.

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The colours – blue, white, pink – and form of the ceramic pot mimic those of the woman!

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Beside it, the earthenware pot, bearing Manet’s signature, stands for the man.

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These flowers evoke desire:

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the pink ones are suggestive of the woman’s complexion and lips;

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the irises follow the direction of her gaze;

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the two red roses symbolize passion.

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Seen against the plants in the background, the hand itself becomes a flower.

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The woman, of course, is aware of these connections:

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she uses dress and make-up to imitate nature and enhance her allure.

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But it is frustrated male desire, above all,

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which gives the flowers, curves and hand the erotic power

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of a whole woman ...

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Part 2. "*Sex in the city: a new vision of women*"

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A century earlier,

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Fragonard painted idealised scenes of aristocratic lovers in natural surroundings.

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As in *In the Conservatory*, the woman has roses on her side, …

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… the man the forest on his.

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But the low wall between them is made to be crossed:

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a passionate embrace is sure to follow.

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For Manet, the urbanite, “this is old hat!”:...

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... “Paris and its suburbs - that’s where the action is!”

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In his portrait of fashion house owners, Monsieur and Madame Jules Guillemet,

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Manet is concerned with the new pattern of male/female relations in the city.

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Marriage is often a facade, as it is in Manet’s own family.

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The stiff posture of his father in this portrait points to syphilis,

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the sexually transmitted disease which killed the painter too.

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Nature is not idealised.

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Unlike Monet in this picture of a garden bench,

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Manet eliminates perspective and masks the horizon.

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He also gives us a new image of women.

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In Courbet, women are incomplete beings, who amuse themselves with animals

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while waiting for “the man” to appear.

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In Manet, they exist in their own right.

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They are the ones whom animals obey.

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And men, when they appear, are often backgrounded, forgotten and held at a distance...

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When women are partly concealed, on the other hand,

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the essential message is that snatched glimpses of a leg or an arm are all the male can hope for.

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And so Madame Guillemet is one of the women who interest Manet:

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she has the independence, the inner certainty

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that go with her status as a fashion tycoon.

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"*Part 3. From women to modern painting*"

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In his pictures of women, Manet invents a new kind of art

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which plays with the viewer’s expectations and wishes.

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In <i>Boating</i> and <i>Nana</i>, we remain outside the picture,

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but, by their looks, .... the man warns us that we are intruding, ....

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.... and the actress calls attention to her current suitor.

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In *the Conservatory<i> and </i>The Bar at the Folies Bergères* are both pictures

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which we enter, as if tumbling into a mirror:

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Madame Guillemet ignores us, just as she ignores her husband

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- and so he and we become doubles, linked by the same fascination.

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In *The Bar*, a man is reflected in the mirror behind the woman.

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But the reflection is ours - caught in the act as would-be seducers.

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And the woman gives us the same impassive look

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that Manet’s painting seems to give its viewers.

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Unlike conventional paintings, which try to make us forget the flat surface of the canvas by modelling the figures…

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… and deepening the background …

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... Manet’s pictures emphasize this flatness by ...

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... reducing depth ...

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... featuring verticals and horizontals which hint at the stretcher behind the canvas ...

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... using sharper relief with stronger contrasts ...

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... leaving certain parts apparently “unfinished”.

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In this way, they tell viewers more plainly what they are to look at:

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they are not allowed to linger over titillating details, while protesting hypocritically that brushwork is the draw.

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The picture becomes more autonomous: it gives only what it wants to give.

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Seen in these terms, Madame Guillemet is not just a queen of fashion, but an allegory of modern painting.

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She excites and attracts us, so much so that we feel like reaching out to touch her -

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….only to be led, with unrelenting firmness, back to the surface of the picture.

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Manet builds his effect on a calculated blend of the artificial and the superficial,

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and these are also the springs of the trap which he - and Madame Guillemet - set for covetous spectators,

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who find themselves simultaneously attracted and repulsed.

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Next ArtSleuth episode: Botticelli's *Birth of Venus* - Do you really know this woman?

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Find more information on: www.canal-educatif.fr

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Written and directed by:

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Produced by:

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Scientific advisor:

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This film exists thanks to the support of donors (possibly you!) and the French Ministry of Culture

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Voiceover:

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Video editing and motion graphics:

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Sound sync & sound recording

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Music selection

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Music

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Special thanks

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A CED production (support us and there will be more ;-))