Manet/Degas

We start with Degas' impressions of Manet--of which he made many, in Manet and Degas at the Met. https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/manet-degas

Degas drew like an angel. Here is a surprising ink drawing by him. He really liked Manet. Manet was robust, young, and cool, as if the misanthrope recluse that Degas could be wanted to consume Manet's relative insouciance. We can see it in the work itself! Degas analytical, compositional (if that's a way to apply his ability to coordinate loads of overwhelming info), raking in his vision; Manet reductive, detached, stylish, a bit louche.

Degas' Bellelli family

Such a beautiful painting! The mother of the two children a relative of Degas' who had just lost her father, but the dynamics here are crazy with the recessive dad and centralized child. In the real, the pinafores create a rick-rack zig-zag pattern that reverberates between the crook of father's elbow and child's left arm.

The jewel, the prize: Olympia.

I remember seeing this painting in Paris, and marveling at the bedclothes, which "support" the subject in so many ways--here, Victorine Meureunt, taking a victory lap for self possession. Add the crazy flowers, circular in their square and even trapezoidal framework. And then the women, cool as cucumbers, and the cat, leaking all the energy everything else contains.

Louche, a little dirty but beautiful. Triangles upon triangles. Counterpointing curtain. A feast of brushwork and color.

Degas' New Orleans family business: cotton! Brother Degas reads the trades, while those around him take care of business. An incredible back room documentary and gorgeous painting.

Degas paints a friend--the blue daybed hoisting the composition so that it pours down the man on left. His slippers await. This is relatively brushy for Degas. Might he finally be absorbing his friend's energy, or has he inhaled the impressionism sweeping Paris?

Classic Degas: orchestral split from stage, the watcher and the observed. In forefront, his friend.

Manet's Plum Wine. His abbreviations are photographic without quoting photographs. A simply gorgeous portrait of VM, but also textures. My friend noted the pink mixed with black, creeping it out to a neutral. 

Weirdo Degas psychology, with an inflatable model in the painter's studio. I can't even.

We close with one of the grand Manet beef-lifes. When I was in grad school at SAIC, I haunted a Manet fish soup painting...his asparagus...the flowers....the boats...all of it. Simply a painter not only of his time but all time. This show is incredible, and it's up through January 7th, 2024.