Manet and modern Paris

Through exceptional loans from the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, curators Caroline Mathieu and Isolde Pludermacher highlight Manet’s central role in innovating modern art at the turn of the century, and shows the influence he had on other avant-garde artists such as Degas and Cézanne. Paris in the second half of the 19th century was a bustling capital in full transformation during the second Napoleonic Empire. Manet painted everyday life, the  crowded rooms of cafés and theatres, the "déjeuneur sur l'herbe" of Parisians. He also painted familiar figures, the people he knows, the women whom he is intrigued by. He strives to be of his time and to paint what he sees. Even so, his painting has strong roots in tradition, and he paints his “impressions” whilst staying faithful to his artistic heritage.