ABSTRACT
Contemporary fools, who earn their living by making the public laugh, have turned Edouard Manet into a sort of Bohemian character, a rogue, a ridiculous bogey, and the public has accepted the jokes and the caricatures as so much truth. Manet usually paints in a higher key than is actually the case in Nature. His paintings are light in tone, luminous and pale throughout. An abundance of pure light gently illuminates his subjects. Manet's pictures there are certain exquisite lines, certain pretty and graceful attitudes which testify to his love for the elegance of the salons. It has been said that Edouard Manet's canvases recall the 'penny-plain, twopence-coloured' pictures from Epinal. Artists, especially Manet, who is an analytical painter, do not have this preoccupation with subject matter which, more than anything else, worries the public. In 1865, Manet was still admitted to the Salon where he exhibited Jesus Insulte par les Soldats and his masterpiece, Olympia.
