Course description
French painter Manet (1832-1883) now enjoys sustained admiration as a pioneer modernist. During his Paris career, however, he was harshly and continually criticized for making and exhibiting paintings that defied conventional expectations in technique, subject matter, scale, and circumstances of display. Beleaguered but resolute, he persisted in creating a body of work that decisively transformed the art of painting. This course closely examines how he did this. Focusing on major works and the context of their creation, it includes Manet's relations with friends, critics, and colleagues, and also looks at his rich posthumous legacy, from impressionism to post-impressionism to Pablo Picasso. For complete and current details about this Harvard Extension course, see the description in the DCE Course Search.