Manet Copy

Manet Copy

6x6in  oil on canvas board   $85.

Detail: Still Life with Salmon  1866

Doing this Copying Master Artists series started because I wanted to see if I could learn how they all handled painting fruit. When I got to Manet I wished I had chosen flowers as my subject matter because I love the flower paintings he did.
I picked this painting to do a detail from because I have seen the original. It is in the Shelburne Museum, Vermont.

 I have always admired Manet's work, mostly because his painting, Olympia, made a huge impression on me when I was an art student. I responded to his bold brushwork, use of contrast and there was a sophisticated modernity of subject and attitude.
Manet was crushed by the rejection of Olympia by the public, not knowing that a hundred years later it would be declared a masterpiece and the start of modern art.
Gauguin reportedly said, 'Painting begins with Manet.'