INDEFINABLE FINESSE 1832-1858~ EDOUARD MANET, the notorious creator of sexually daring paintings, was beloved by his friends and despised by the critics and the public. In the 1860s, when he began his career, he was handsome, charming and always fashionably dressed in his carefully tailored jacket, light-colored trousers and tall, wide-brimmed hat. Burning to succeed, and sure that he knew the direction painting should go, he worked with models in his studio, met friends in the Louvre and in private galleries, talked art and politics in the Paris salons and cafs. The crusading novelist Emile Zola, an early defender of his art, noted his "keen, intelligent eyes, [his] restless mouth turning ironic now and again; the whole of his expressive, irregular face has an indefinable finesse and vigor about it." Armand Silvestre, a contemporary critic, described Manet's appealing character and caustic wit. He was "a kind of dandy. Blond, with a sparse, narrow beard which was forked at the end, he had in the extraordinary vivacity of his gaze, in the mocking expression on his lips-his mouth was narrow-lipped, his teeth irregular and uneven-a very strong dose of the Parisian street urchin. Although very generous, and very good-hearted, he was deliberately ironic in conversation, and often cruel. He had a marvelous command of the annihilating and devastating phrase."Antonin Proust, his faithful friend since childhood, emphasized Manet's courtly manners. He was of "medium height and muscular build. He had a lithe charm which was enhanced by the elegant swagger of his walk. No matter how much he exaggerated his gait or affected the drawl of the Parisian urchin, he was never in the least vulgar. One was conscious of his breeding." Manet, easily astonished and easily amused, had a character as dazzling as his appearance. Despite his sharp tongue, nervous outbursts and fits of depression, he impressed distinguished friends like Baudelaire and Mallarm. He told Zola that "he adored society and discovered secret pleasures in the perfumes and brilliant delights of evening parties."1 Thodore Duret, who met Manet in Madrid in 1865 and became his friend, summed him up as essentially "a man of the world, refined, courteous, polished...fond of frequenting salons, where he was remarked and admired for his verve and his flashing wit."The art dealer Ren Gimpel suggested his physical charm, remembering how the very smoothness of "his beard, well kept, brushed, curled, soft and caressing, [was] almost uniquely suitable for love." The journalist Paul Alexis defined the sensitivity and responsiveness that made so many women fall in love with him. Manet was "one of the five or six men of present-day Parisian society who still know how to talk to a woman. The rest of us...are too bitter, too distracted, too deep in our obsessions: our forced gallantries make us resemble bears dancing the polka."One story synthesizes Manet's delightful personality and delicate wit. When a co Excerpted from Impressionist Quartet: The Intimate Genius of Manet and Morisot, Degas and Cassatt by Jeffrey Meyers All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.
