Edouard Manet, who is considered the link between Realism and Impressionism, painted
this lively outdoor scene, Music in the Tuileries Gardens,
of wealthy Parisians at their leisure. Men in dark jackets and
light pants with top hats and women in fancy dresses and hats
attests to the social status of the group. We can almost hear the
music and the conversation. Coming from an upper-class family
himself, Manet would be present at such events and this was
probably his own experience.
Leisure time and recreational activities like listening
to music on a Sunday were all parts of modernity. Manet actually
painted himself into this painting in the position of the flaneur,
observing the crowd from the left front c orner. Manet came from a
wealthy family and he was engaged with and knew his way around
society, in this respect, he fit Baudelaire's description of a
flaneur perfectly. Like Courbet did in After Dinner at Ornans, he
also incorporated his friends into the picture, Baudelair,
Theophile Gautier and Baron Taylor as well as his brother Eugene
Manet.
As much as looking for new expressions of art, Manet
still wanted to be traditional. He was balancing to see how much
he could breakdown tradition and get away with it. He still wanted
to go through traditional channels for exhibiting his work and
never wanted to exhibit with the Impressionists. A lot of
people think of him as the'father of modernism.' The technique he
used in this painting creates a really odd flatness. He removed
the in-between, transitional tones and butted one color next to
the other. Especially in the umbrella in the front, he used light
and dark gray side by side just with a black outline.
In his own way he is borrowing from and paying homage to
Gustave Courbet in
this work. The collective distraction that is present in this
painting is very similar to Burial
at Ornans. The little girls' elaborate dresses and the way they
are playing in the ground recall the altar boys' standing on the
left side of the Ornans painting. In Courbet's painting there is a
sea of black which is for mourning, here the context changes to
become men going out on a city day. The shock of red in the
Beadles costumes in the middle of Courbet's painting is played off
with the yellow and blue dresses of the women in the front. In
both paintings, the main elements for each event is hidden, we
don't see the body of the deceased for the funeral nor see the
music for listening. The dog in Courbet is replaced by an umbrella
in Manet and Manet's brother is in the position of the Veteran of
1783 in Courbet.
Manet's crowd is bigger than Courbet's and there is no
sign of religion, it is a scene of leisure. The people are already
gathered in Music at the Tuileries Gardens unlike the
moment before the burial at Courbet's painting. There is also a
difference in their palettes, Manet uses a light palette to suit
the occasion and the sunny day is reflected in his tones of
yellow, blue and white. While in A Burial at Ornans there is a
huge sky up above, Music at Tuileries Gardens is packed
full of trees.
Manet liked to borrow from the past in his art while
stylistically using modern techniques. In this painting he is
acknowledging Courbet while leading the way for the young
Impressionists with his sketchy brush-strokes, and light color
palette. Overall, it gives us a great picture of the recreation of
upper-class society in 1862 Paris.
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