Great Art episode 4 2018 – Edouard Manet
Edouard Manet
This acclaimed documentary, focussing on the sell-out exhibition at The Royal Academy of Arts, depicts the craft of one of the all-time great artists, the ‘father of modern art’, Edouard Manet. Spanning this enigmatic and, at times, controversial artist’s career Manet gives a fascinating exploration and detailed biography of the momentous painter and his environment in a rapidly changing 19th-century Paris.
Presented by Tim Marlow, and with special guests including art historians and contemporary painters, this documentary reveals Manet’s forward-thinking and modern approach to portraiture. Despite Manet’s portraits comprising around half of his artistic output, they have never been explored in a retrospective exhibition.
The Royal Acadmey’s landmark show consisted of more than 50 works, including portraits of his most frequent sitter his wife Suzanne Leenhoff and luminaries of the period such as Antonin Proust, Émile Zola and Stéphane Mallarmé. Displaying exclusive behind-the-scenes moments of the exhibition’s preparation as well as a detailed biography of Manet’s life this superbly crafted documentary is not to be missed.
