Modern life artists

​Two of the most important artists of the Impressionist movement. Renoir was the first of the Impressionists to see a public success and produced his prints in view of this success.He lists 60 prints, 25 engravings and 35 lithographs in his catalog raisonné. Manet was one of the instigators of Impressionism, but he always maintained a very cautious attitude, linked as it was, at least in theory, to a traditional vision of art. This vision always induced him to distinguish himself from the other painters of whom he shared the approach and to seek the approval of official circles with pertinacity, presenting his paintings to the juries of the Salon, which were often rejected.

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Pierre-Auguste Renoir 

Born in Limoges (France), his father was a tailor while his mother a seamstress. In 1844 he moved to Paris with the whole family and began to study music, but his father urged him to devote himself to painting, especially to the decoration of porcelain. In 1848 he was a pupil of the School of Christian School Brothers, which is based near the Louvre. He later entered the workshop of Charles Gleyre, a well-known artist of that time, and thanks to his help he managed to enter the French Academy of Art. In 1864, with the painting “dancing Esmeralda”, admitted to the Salon (the national artistic exhibition) Renoir begins to have his first commissions. In 1865 he painted the Fontainebleu forest together with Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro and Alfred Sisley. In 1872 he painted with Monet who settled in Argenteuil, on the banks of the Seine. In 1873, together with other painters, he gave life to the anonymous cooperative society of artists, painters, sculptors, engravers, etc. and in 1874 he organized an exhibition with this company that will later be recognized as the first exhibition of the Impressionists. 

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Edouard Manet

Manet created scandal in traditionalist settings for his way of conceiving painting as a faithful mirror of reality; although painting, splendidly innovative, is firmly rooted in tradition. Throughout his career as an artist, Manet was attracted by his clothes and many of the costumed figures, a recurring theme in many of his paintings, were inspired by his interest in Spanish culture. Manet can be considered the true master of still lifes. This vision always induced him to distinguish himself from the other painters of whom he shared the approach and to seek the approval of official circles with pertinacity, presenting his paintings to the juries of the Salon, which were often rejected. He participated actively in the meetings of innovators, but never participated in their exhibitions. Moreover, unlike the impressionists, he preferred to paint in his own studio rather than open air (en plein air), although in 1874 he spent a summer with Claude Monet in Argenteuil painting his boat-studio. The painter also created beautiful interior scenes: scenes depicting bars, dance halls or brothels. He also painted large, more traditional paintings of domestic interiors, much in vogue at the time, but unlike others in Manet’s paintings, they did not have allegorical or moral meanings and this left the critics perplexed. In the last years of his life Manet realized his works with pastels, a technique that he loved in a particular way for the freshness he gave to his creations.