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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 Boating and Nana, 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 and 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 ;-))
