Manet / Degas (Met 2023)

 https://photos.app.goo.gl/dbS11rvmxXnJESim8

Thoughts and impressions after visiting the Manet / Degas exhibit at the Met Dec. 2023:

  • I expected the exhibition to just pair two arbitrary impressionist paintings to get viewers, but more actual meat to the comparison than I expected. The two have very similar origins (within 2 years in age, bourgeois background), actually knew each other, degas painted manet (see photo album), had argument over that painting, competed with one another with similar paintings of same model in same cafe. After manet's death in his 50s degas lived another 30 years and collected manet's paintings, including reassembling the execution of maximilian.
  • In 1860s (olympia especially, christ) manet clearly the critical darling in his provocative stance, degas trying to catch up. later less clear.
  • When i think of degas i think of bold pastels of women in evening (like 1884 Singer in Green here). Degas has a wider range. his early romantic history paintings are almost art nouveaux -ish (like his semiramis building babylon, which i rather like). his pivoting away from history in the wake of Manet's 1860s success feels like a very strategic choice.
  • Manet more 'political' -- execution of maximilian, sketches of paris commune 1870, but Degas is more 'wordly' -- he travels to New Orleans to visit family and paints scenes of life in New Orleans. interesting glimpse into continuing French culture in Louisiana in the later 19th century.
  • The paintings i recognize here are mostly from the met (like Manet's boating painting). i must know the met's collection better than I think i do, oor maybe i've seen these paintings before in other contexts, either in reality or in reproduction.
  • The berthe morisot paintings (especially morisot in black looking at the viewer) are the most compelling pieces here. Very compelling woman, and she brought out the best in Manet.
  • I'd be curious to see more photographs. i've always assumed that impressionism develops in reaction to the widespread adoption of photography, but i don't have a lot of details there.
  • The exhibit was very crowded, even at 10:45am on a weekday. More masks than I've seen in a while.

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