Art Historical Research

Fig. 6 Édouard Manet, Carnet de notes (1860–1862) Nombreuses adresses, notamment de modèles. Et quelques croquis (cover), 1860-1862, only surviving notebook of Édouard Manet, The Morgan Library & Museum, New York City

Fig. 7 Édouard Manet, Carnet de notes (1860–1862) Nombreuses adresses, notamment de modèles. Et quelques croquis (pp.8-9), 1860-1862, only surviving notebook of Édouard Manet, The Morgan Library & Museum, New York City

One of the most important aspect of art historical research in determining authenticity is the analysis of visual material, documents, and written or published sources. For this investigation, they have been subdivided into five main groups: written sources, provenances, image research, oeuvre research and context. What follows is an account of the assessment of the painting Jobarde on the basis of this classification.

1. Written Sources

1.1 – The Will of 30 September 1882

Seven months before his death, Édouard Manet drafted his will.1 He appointed his brother Eugène Manet, his wife Suzanne Leenhoff, and his cousin Jules Dejouy as his executors. His friend Théodore Duret was instructed to supervise the sale or destruction of the works in his studio. Manet wrote: “The pictures, sketches and drawings remaining in my studio after my death are to be sold at auction. I should like my friend Théodore Duret to take charge of this sale, trusting entirely in his taste, and in the friendship he has always shown me, to decide what should be put up for auction and what should be destroyed. I should like him to choose from my work a picture to remember me by.” 2 This last wish supports the assumption that the oeuvre as a hermetic legacy was incomplete in two ways. Firstly, Manet speaks of “the pictures, sketches and drawings remaining in my studio”. Secondly, he speaks of “what should be destroyed.” Both remarks suggest that Manet had already sifted through the works at an earlier stage, warranting the conclusion that the oeuvre was no longer complete even before he died.

1.2 – Inventaire Après Décès Édouard Manet

The Inventaire Après Décès Édouard Manet no. 40 is a posthumous inventory of the paintings present in Manet's studio undertaken approximately forty-five days

Fig. 8 Photographs and notes from the inventory of Édouard Manet's studio, circa 1883, silver albumne photograph affixed to the album page, circa 1883, The Morgan Library & Museum, New York City after the artist's passing. This project was likely begun under extreme duress due to financial complications surrounding the rights of inheritance for Suzanne Manet-Leenhoff and her son Léon Leenhoff. In reviewing this document, it is important to take into account the circumstances under which is was hurriedly prepared and subject the recorded information to renewed scrutiny.

Upon further inspection, it is immediately clear that many of the titles of the paintings named in the inventory were not assigned to the paintings by Manet himself. For example, several works included in the inventory are unfinished and therefore, would be have been assigned titles by the artist himself during his lifetime.

There also seems to be confusion regarding which title belongs to which painting. For example, under the painting labeled #30, we find the note: "[woman] on horseback prized at one hundred francs". Only, this description corresponds to an entirely different painting – a painting labeled #48. 3 The unfinished companion piece of #48 – a similar painting of a horse rider – is not recognized as such in the inventory.4 This unfinished work, which later became known as Amazone from 1882, is now in the Hahnloser Collection in Winterthur.5 In another instance, a painting labeled #35 is incorrectly assigned the title Amazon blue background when it should have been assigned the title Amazone de face. 6

This analysis allows us to draw two important conclusions:

• titles assigned to paintings in the inventory are unreliable; • the photographic record documented in the inventory does not include all of the artworks that were present in Manet's studio following his death.

1.3 – Retrospective Exhibition of 5-28 January 1884

A retrospective exhibition of Manet’s was staged at the École Nationale des BeauxArts following the artist's death.7 An exhibition catalog was published to document the event. The exhibition catalog includes images and descriptions of the one hundred and sixty-nine paintings by Manet that were displayed. Evidence of Jobarde nowhere to be found in this document.

Fig. 9 The written note of the Paris painting expert, Pierre M. Blanc 1.4 – The 1884 Hôtel Drouot Auction Catalogue

Both Manet's will penned 30 September 1882 and the inventory of his studio taken on 18 June 1883 (Art Historical Research 1.1 & 1.2) were used as official documents accompanying the auction of Manet’s artworks on 4-5 February 1884 at the Hôtel Drouot.8 The auction catalog makes no mention of the painting Jobarde.

1.5 – The Durand-Ruel Archive

Art dealer Paul Durand-Ruel was the first serious buyer of Manet’s artwork. He was one of the compilers of Manet's posthumous studio inventory (Art Historical Research 1.2). For this reason, the archive of Durand-Ruel was consulted as part of our Art Historical Research investigation of Jobarde. A review of the Durand-Ruel archival documents did not reveal any mention of Jobarde.

2. Provenance

Provenance refers to the history of the ownership of a painting or other work of art. Information about the ownership of a painting can come from a range of sources, including contemporary descriptions, inventories of collections, inventory numbers on the paintings themselves and auction sale catalogs.

2.1 – The Provenance of Jobarde

While it is believed that Jobarde was painted during 1872-1875, the earliest archival references to the painting uncovered by this investigation date to 1930. In total, a painting matching the description of Jobarde and attributed to Édouard Manet has been documented on four occasions:

Name Year

Pierre M. Blanc

1930 Maurice Marignane 1955 Erich Fehlmann 1961

J. Meier 1971 Location Paris Paris Basle Basle

The first description of Jobarde can be found in the written appraisal of a Parisian painting expert, Pierre M. Blanc [Fig. 9]. 9 Nothing can be surmised about Blanc's qualifications, and it is unclear on what information his appraisal was based.

Fig. 10 The written note of the Paris expert Maurice Marignane Blanc’s description of Jobarde includes the measurements of the painting that exceed the current known dimensions of the painting. In his appraisal, Blanc situates the painting in Trouville and dates it to around 1880.

In January 1955, Maurice Marignane, an expert to the Tribunal de la Seine and the Court of Appeal of Paris, writes that the painting Jobarde – attributed to Édouard Manet – has been sourced by the current owner from a Hungarian collection [Fig.10].10 It is notable that Marignane also situates the painting in Trouville and dates it to around 1880. The measurements of the painting cited by Marignane in his document echo those identified by Blanc. Marignane presumably read Blanc’s appraisal and referenced large parts of it in the process of preparing his own document.

Located on the back of Jobarde's stretcher is a stamp that reads “Erich Fehlmann Gemälde-restaurator Basel”. This stamp bears the date “15 dez. 1961.” Former staff members of the Kunstmuseum Basel identified Erich Fehlmann as a since retired fine art restorer. We were unable to find any further information regarding Erich Fehlmann or his relationship to Jobarde.

Finally, Dr. J. Meier writes of a painting matching the description of Jobarde and attributed to Manet in 1971. Meier was likely a chemist or fine art restorer in Bale. Further attempts to trace Meier and his relationship to Jobarde did not yield any additional details.

3. Image Research

In image research, the painting as it appears to the naked eye is compared with other pictorial sources such as studies, sketches, drawings, paintings, etchings or photographs. It allows us to date parts and sometimes the whole image of the object of research and establish its place in time and thus to back up or reject any visual proof of the artist’s authorship. The sources that have been examined in relation to the object of research are: Lochard’s photos, Manet’s drawings and sketchbooks, and every feature that might be connected with the written and painted marks that were found on the painting.

Fig. 11 Édouard Manet, L'Amazone, circa 18751876, watercolor, graphite, and drawings on tan wove paper, 8.1 x 10.6 inches (20.8 x 27 cm), Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn

Fig. 12 Édouard Manet, drawing from a sketchbook Bonham’s auction catalogue Modern British and Continental Pictures, 1991 3.1 – Fernand Lochard Archive

While Paul Durand-Ruel assisted in the posthumous inventory of Manet's studio, it was Fernand Lochard who was primarily responsible for photographing and compiling the inventory notes (Art Historical Research 1.2). As a result, we searched the Lochard archives for a possible record of Jobarde, but found no photograph matching the painting.11

3.2 – Preliminary Sketches

There are only two periods in which Manet worked on artworks depicting female horse riders, what the artist called "Amazons".12 The first period extends from 1872 to 1875. During this period, Manet focused on Amazons and male horse riders. The second period extends through 1882. During this time, Manet studied Amazons as separate models.

The first period from 1872 to 1875 that is of special interest in connection with our Image Research investigation of Jobarde. One of the most striking and powerful watercolors from this period is L’Amazone [fig. 11].13 Donated to the Brooklyn Museum in 1923, the painting was originally sold to art dealer Ambroise Vollard by Manet's widow, Suzanne Leenhoff-Manet in 1894. The Brooklyn Museum archives hold a note and a letter from respected art historian and researcher, Anne Coffin Hanson, in which she dates the watercolor to 1873-1874 based on Manet’s choice of subject and color palette.14 15 16 17 L’Amazone served as a preliminary study for an unfinished painting by the artist. Aspects of the composition, light, and shadow effects show clear similarities with Jobarde. These observations are supported by analysis with the latest x-ray techniques, which will be covered in Painting Technique Analysis 7.4.

3.3 – Sketchbooks

A 1991 auction catalog for Bonham's Modern British and Continental Pictures sale included a sketchbook attributed to Édouard Manet [Fig. 12]. Unfortunately, we were unable to locate the present whereabouts of this sketchbook.18 Photographs from the Bonham's catalog of the sketchbook show drawings of Amazons and horses. While the horses and riders depicted are posed somewhat differently that the halted stance of the horse in Jobarde, the hats and costumes of the riders bear striking similarities to Jobarde.

Fig. 13 At the bottom right of the photo, which probably dates from the 1960s, we can read the name ‘Beauté’. At the bottom center ‘Jobarde’ is already almost illegible 3.4 – The Names, the Monogram, and the Color Signature of Jobarde

The Names

Édouard Manet used text, names, and titles throughout his oeuvre for both utilitarian and humorous purposes. Located at the bottom of the painting Jobarde, three grouping of such text are discernible:

• The word ‘Jobarde’ in the center, rendered almost illegible as a result of an earlier restoration; • An erased name which reads as Beau(?)t(?)éZ(?) at the bottom right; • A monogram ‘M’ at the bottom left;

In the document penned by Maurice Marignane in 1955 (Art Historical Research 2.1), the clerk writes: “The [painting] is signed at the bottom left and the name of the horse at the bottom right is written in another hand”20 [Fig. 13]. Based on Marignane's description, we can assume that at one time, the text located at the bottom of Jobarde's canvas were clearly visible to the naked eye. In 2003, Atelier for Restoration & Research of Paintings (ARRS) removed the overpainting on the surface of Jobarde, revealing the text once again. Regarding the "name of the horse at the bottom right" referenced by Marignane, it seems this could read as ‘Beauté’.21 An alternate interpretation read it as ‘Beause’ – meaning ‘belly’ in Parisian argot – which perhaps refers to the horse's pregnant belly.22 It does seem that the interpretation of the name as 'Beauté' is the most plausible. This is the name referenced by Pierre Blanc in the earliest known appraisal of Jobarde dating from 1930 (Art Historical Research 2.1) – a time when the name was probably still clearly legible.23

The Monograph

There are twelve known paintings by Manet signed with the monogram ‘M’ [Fig. 14, pp. 26]. The monogram that most resembles the monogram on Jobarde is found on the small painting L’Asperge [Fig. 15, pp. 26]. Art historian Anne Coffin Hanson quotes the following anecdote in Manet and the Modern Tradition: ‘‘[L’Asperge] was bought by [Manet's] friend Charles Ephrussi. With characteristic gentle humor, Manet made a very private painting for Ephrussi, a single stalk of asparagus, which he sent to his friend with the message, ‘There was one missing from your bunch’.”24 Coffin Hanson argues that L’Asperge must have been a very personal gift as the intended recipient ‘knew’ it could only have come from Manet. The fact that both

Fig. 14 Monogram ‘M’ on Jobarde

Fig. 15 The monogram on L’Asperge paintings – L’Asperge and Jobarde – have a humorous undertone also makes it quite likely that the recipient and the sender were closely acquainted.

In the year 2002, Atelier for Restoration & Research of Paintings (ARRS) were given the opportunity to examine the monogram on the painting L’Asperge with a magnifying glass. Of all the monograms on Manet’s paintings, the one on L’Asperge bears the greatest resemblance in rhythm and style with that on Jobarde.

It is important to note as part of our Art Historical Research investigation that, much like Jobarde, L’Asperge too disappeared from the public domain for almost fifty years after being presented to Charles Ephrussi by Manet in 1880.25 26 This shared circumstance between L’Asperge and Jobarde works to support the argument that Jobarde was similarly created by Manet as a personal gift to a close friend. In the light of this hypothesis, we could also ask ourselves if the recipient of Jobarde was the model riding the horse, since the horse and the model are addressed ‘personally’ by their names (Art Historical Research 3.4). However, we must not forget that the impressionist painting style makes it hard to identify the model for Jobarde. 27 For the person represented on the painting, who presumably belonged to Manet’s inner circle, ‘recognizability’ was probably not an issue.

The Color Signature of Jobarde

Manet signed his paintings with a monograph and also with a color signature. In Edouard Manet: Rebel in a Frock Coat, Beth Archer Brombert argues that Manet's color signature first appears is his work in 1865.30 She argues: “This was also the first of Manet’s paintings to use acid yellow as an accent, a signature touch that would reappear in the presence of a whole or partly peeled lemon, a handkerchief, a patch of light, or the binding of a book.” 31

Manet's particular color signature consists of a small tuft of yellow applied with a single brushstroke – sometimes bright lemon, sometimes ocher. Jobarde has a yellow color signature located directly under the horse’s hindquarters: a string of ocher paint on a boldly applied finish [Fig 16, pp. 28].

Fig. 16 Color signature of a single brushstroke consisting of a small tuft of yellow on Jobarde

Fig. 17 Manet's red color signature, appearing in paintings from 1873, is present in the flower in the rider's lapel in Jobarde. Another remarkable color signature that occurs in the works of Manet is his use of the single color red. In known paintings from the year 1873, this signature is applied to individual details – for example the flowers on the hat in Le Chemin de Fer, the motif on the shoe in Sur La Plage, the fire under the kettle and the fire near the boat in Le Bateau Goudronné. In the case of Jobarde, the red signature appears as the flower in the rider's lapel [Fig. 17].

4. Oeuvre Research

Oeuvre research in authentication is the reconstruction of the chronology of the entire body of an artist’s known works. In this way, artworks with a debatable provenance or uncertain dates can then be situated within the chronological framework.

4.1 - Introduction

In the course of his brief career lasting only between 1860 and 1883, Manet’s body of work reflected an astonishing variety of motifs and changes in style. Such diversity in Manet’s artwork reflects the artist’s far-reaching ambitions – his methods were constantly under review in pursuit of a truly modern style of painting.

In a letter to friend Antonin Proust from 1879, Manet explains of his body of work: “I need to be looked at as a whole. And, I beg you, if I die, don’t let me enter public collections piece by piece, I would be poorly judged.”32 However, the artist's owner behaviors has made it virtually impossible for future generations to view his oeuvre in it entirety. For example, Manet was known to cut up or destroy his own work.33 In other instances, paintings disappeared from view after they had been sold or gifted to friends.34 35

Fortunately, the paintings Manet submitted to the Salon can serve as visual benchmarks in the evolution of Manet's oeuvre. In Manet and the Modern Tradition, Anne Coffin Hanson explains: “During [Manet's] adult life – from the time of his first [Salon] submission in 1859 until his death in 1883 – twenty-one Salons were held. Manet twice sent no works, was completely rejected from four exhibitions, but succeeded in showing works in all the others. To these exhibitions he submitted thirty-seven paintings of which twenty-six were accepted.” 36

Fig. 18 Édouard Manet Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe, 1863, oil on canvas, 81.9 x 104.1 inches (208 x 264.5 cm), Musée d'Orsay, Paris

Fig. 19 Édouard Manet A Bar at the Folies-Bergère, 1882, oil on canvas, 37.8 x 51.2 inches (96 x 130 cm), Courtauld Gallery, London Apart from the Salons, Manet’s own exhibitions provide an excellent metric for understanding the development of his oeuvre. The paintings that were shown on those occasions were all made with an equal amount of dedication, vision and passion. Manet’s work has been documented in numerous catalogues raisonnés, scholarly compilations of an artist's work, to map the chronology of his oeuvre.

4.2 – The Classification of Manet's Work

As we have already discussed, people and horses are a recurrent theme in Manet’s oeuvre, but that he focused specifically on the subject of women on horseback in the period from 1872 to 1875.37 The comparison with the drawing L’Amazone was also an indication that Jobarde probably dates from that same period.

In order to come to a more accurate definition of the period in which Jobarde was made, we took a closer look at Anne Coffin Hanson’s classification of Manet’s work according to subject and color palette. Coffin Hanson distinguishes three phases:

Dating Subject

1859-1865 Copies and pastiches Color Scheme

Dark palette

1865-1873 Study in-depth of traditional sources Dark palette

1874-1883 Impressionism and independent work Light palette

Throughout these three phases, Manet's color palette shifts from a fairly dark to a light, coinciding with the rise of impressionism.38

There is also a classification based on the subject matter of the work:

Dates Subject Content

1859-1865 Copies and pastiches Old masters, contemporary themes

1865-1873 Traditional sources Topical work

1874-1883 Still lives & friends Independent work

Fig. 20 Édouard Manet Le Bon Bock,1873, oil on canvas, 37.27 x 32.82 inches (94.6 x 83.3 cm), Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia

Fig. 21 Auguste Renoir Allée cavalière au bois de Boulogne,1873, oil on canvas, 103.1 x 88.9 inches (262 x 226 cm), Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg When we look at Jobarde in the light of the second classification table, we see that the subject fits in both the second and the third phase.

4.3. – Two Styles in 1873

One of the most striking features of Jobarde is the presence of two painting styles: the Amazon is depicted in an impressionist style, the horse in a realistic style. The same contrasting styles can be found in the painting Le Bon Bock from 1873 [Fig.20]. Anne Coffin Hanson writes: “...the year 1873 is seen as the key point in [Manet's] career. All paintings from that year ‘look’ in palette, painting set up, brush stroke or composition more or less traditional. Controversies, the naturally aspect of his work, formed in this year well controlled and in balance.”40 1873 was therefore not only a turning point in Manet’s choice of subject matter and color, but also in his choice of painting technique. And it is precisely because of the simultaneous occurrence of both styles in Jobarde that it should be dated to the year 1873.

4.4 – The Influence of Manet's Circle of Friends

To support the dating of Jobarde to 1873, we looked Manet’s circle of friends, more specifically, to works by Auguste Renoir. Known to have been painted in 1873, Renoir's Allée Cavalière au Bois de Boulogne depicts an Amazon dressed in clothing almost identical to the rider in Jobarde. The costumes of the Amazons are similar in design and fabric, the white collars and sleeves of both blouses and the flowers and hats are alike. The similarities between these two paintings support the assertion that Allée Cavalière au Bois de Boulogne either served as inspiration for or was inspired by Jobarde in or close to the known date of Allée Cavalière au Bois de Boulogne – 1873.

5. Context

In authentication research, the context divides into two parts: 1) the relation of the contemporary environment of the artist to his work in general, 2) the contextual network of each individual work. In the case of Jobarde, it is the Spanish influence on Manet’s work that leads to new insights.

Fig. 22 Diego Velázquez, El príncipe Baltasar Carlos a caballo, 1635, oil on canvas, 82 x 68 inches (209 x 173 cm), Prado, Madrid [Mirror image]

Fig. 23 Édouard Manet Jobarde, circa 1872-1875, oil on canvas, 33.7 x 19.9 inches (85.6 x 50.5 cm) 5.1 – Hispanism

Manet was enchanted and amazed when he came face to face with the work of Diego Velázquez in 1865. He found the paintings of Velázquez to be far superior to the works of all his contemporaries and followers. As a result, Velázquez became both thematically and technically an important source of inspiration for Manet.

In our opinion, it is likely that Velázquez’ El príncipe Baltasar Carlos a caballo [Fig. 22] greatly influenced the composition and theme of Jobarde. Although Manet does not mention the painting in his letters, he cannot have failed to notice it during his visit to the Prado in 1865. He may even have already known El príncipe Baltasar Carlos a caballo from an etching by Goya, which was part of a popular series of publications on Spanish painters.43

5.2 – Mirrored Symmetry

Manet was interested in confronting his viewers with his inner contradictions and ‘the other’. As a result, he often employed mirrored symmetry in his work to achieve this goal. For Manet, content and form are two opposed ‘realities’, which for example is reflected in the opposition between impressionism and naturalism. Although Manet often derived his themes from the old masters, every statement or thought about the painting is the product of an individually colored and equivalent contemporary or modern point of view. By following this thought, we gain insight into the complex, humorous content of Manet’s work.

The phenomenon of mirrored symmetry occurs throughout Manet’s entire oeuvre, in the early copies of old masters as well as in his later works and in numerous etchings.44 While sometimes only details are mirrored, there are also entire paintings rendered as mirror images. In Jobarde, Manet has rotated the composition of El príncipe Baltasar Carlos a caballo [Fig. 22] around on its vertical axis.

Another striking similarity between Jobarde and El príncipe Baltasar Carlos a caballo is that of the direction and height of the mountains in both landscapes: in Jobarde, they run parallel to the mirror axis of El príncipe Baltasar Carlos a caballo. An X-ray image of Jobarde clearly shows that this landscape slopes from the top left to a lower point on the right, exactly like in the Velázquez painting.

6. Conclusions – Art Historical Research

In the evaluation, the results in the first part of the investigation are named in the order in which appear. The results are discussed in the context of the status assigned to each. The sub-findings of each category were assigned one of three possible statuses that correlated with their ability to support the attribution of Jobarde to Édouard Manet: negative, positive, or neutral.

Negative Status

This is the status which argues against the authorship of Édouard Manet:

• No mention of Jobarde in any contemporary or later source • No mention of the work by collection owners

Positive Status

This is the status which argues in favor of the authorship of Édouard Manet:

• Similarity between the monogram on L’Asperge and that on Jobarde • Yellow color signature • Neutral Status

This is the status that argues neither strongly in favor of or against the authorship of Édouard Manet:

• The first provenance dating from the 1920s and the 1930s • The provenance of 1955 and the investigation in 1971 • Period from 1872 to 1875: Amazons and horse riders • A sketchbook page by Manet that was sold at auction in 1991 • The turning point in 1873: change of color palette and painting style • The names or texts that appear on a number of works • No identification of the Amazon Jobarde • The similar dress fashion in works by Renoir and by Manet • The bilateral or mirror image relationship between Jobarde and El príncipe

Baltasar Carlos a caballo

As far as the neutral status is concerned, with the exception of the identification of the model, we have found no argument against Jobarde. On the contrary, there are numerous clues which argue in favor of giving the painting a place in Manet’s oeuvre. We would like to point out that copiers of Manet would not have been able to create such a playful painting so quickly and most likely never sign the painting with a monogram. However, we must remain conscious of the fact that no positive link can be established on the basis of the many clues because all the knowledge that is involved has become fairly accessible in the 125 years following Manet’s death.

Fig. 24 Édouard Manet Auguste Manet, 1860.

The painting technique of an artist is initially determined by his training. Painting technique is further developed by personal choices.1 The first factor is often culturally determined, while the second is of an individual nature. Besides training and personal choices, the tools and the characteristics of the applied materials are important elements of an artist’s painting technique.

To investigate a painting technique, the surface of the painting and the inner layers are being placed in the context of a so-called pictorial ‘code’. Modern laboratory techniques are used to reveal the deeper, ‘hidden’ layers in the painting.2

1. Pictorial Analysis

Pictorial analysis is the study of those aspects of painting technique that are inherent to the work practice of the artist: the sequence of the build-up of a painting, its composition and perspective, light and color, the texture of the paint and of the surface layer. It deals with aspects that are characteristic of the artist’s vision as it manifests itself in every aspect of the painting.

Pictorial analysis relies heavily on the state of the artwork. Knowledge of the painting’s restoration history is a precondition for pictorial analysis and for gaining a clear insight into the painter’s signature and painterly "handwriting"

1.1 – Manet & Caricatures

In Manet’s family milieu, drawing caricatures was considered frivolous. This doesn’t alter the fact that caricature is one of the most difficult forms of drawing. Caricatures not only ‘should’ be accurate, they ‘must’ be accurate, otherwise they simply would miss the mark. Replace the word ‘caricature’ with ‘painting’, and the provocative and humorous nature of Manet's paintings immediately come to mind.8

Manet's experience with caricature clearly helped him stretch the boundaries of painting and solve certain ‘pictorial issues.’ This is reflected in two ways in Manet’s work at times when he was attempting to bring a subject in harmony with painterly expression: by his accuracy which was based on the technique of caricature, and by his wish to push the boundaries of that same technique by using a more free play of lines in his search for the right form.

Fig. 25 Thomas Couture The Romans in their Decadence, 1847, oil on canvas, 185.5 x 303.9 inches (472 x 772 cm), Musée d'Orsay, Paris 1.2 – The Studio of Thomas Couture

In January 1850, Édouard Manet was accepted in the studio of Thomas Couture.9 Couture was highly regarded because he had won first prize with his submission to the Salon of 1837, and because he had been trained by Baron Gros, a former student of the French painter Jacques-Louis David. His teaching method focused on traditional draftsmanship. Art historian Adolphe Tabarant explains: “Couture was among those who wanted to maintain indefinitely the formulas of the past.”10 This vision of painting was essentially dedicated to the continuation of traditional forms and styles.

2. Étude, Ébauche and Fini in Manet

Traditionally, étude represents the first stage in creating a painting. In this stage, the artist works out a composition and color scheme for the future painting. During the next stage - ébauche - the artist creates what is essentially a first draft of the future painting via an underpainting with dulled color. During the final stage - fini - the artist finalizes the colors and forms present in the completed painting. While trained in traditional methods and styles by Thomas Couture, Manet did not consider the stages of étude, ébauche and fini as separate, successive phases in the painting process. Rather, her choose to combine them as he saw fit.11

2.1 - The Impressionist Painting Style

Manet’s ‘impressionist’ painting style is in fact based on the loose, sketchy technique that is associated with the étude. Manet blocks in the painting in a free, informal style that allows for mistakes because these can still be corrected in the following layers. You could say that the étude serves to establish the foundations of the definitive painting.

In order to increase the durability of the painting and not muddy the colors, excess paint was scraped off with a palette knife, but Manet did not always remove all of it. Sometimes, Manet left some of the paint on his palette knife and pushed these small accumulations back into the forms of the composition, for example into the outlines of a figure. Thus these accumulations, which are part of the étude, could also end up in the final layer of the painting, the fini. These lines are clearly visible on x-ray images (Painting Technique Analysis 7.5).

Fig. 26 Édouard Manet Le Fifre, 1866, oil on canvas, 63.1 x 38.1 inches (160.5 x 97 cm), Musée d'Orsay, Paris 2.2 - The Naturalistic Painting Style

In Manet’s ‘naturalistic’ painting style the emphasis lays on the revision of intermediate layers and on the finish: the ébauche and the fini. The combination of these two treatments on top of the étude gives the visible end result its typical appearance. According to the academic tradition, areas needed to be deepened or heightened during the build-up of the painting in the ébauche and the fini in order to achieve a natural perspective and texture.

Manet only partially adhered to the rules of the academic finish or fini, which demanded that no visible brushstrokes should remain in the highly polished appearance of a naturalistic painting. In fact, Manet applied visible brushstrokes in the paint surface of the fini. When he worked on naturalistic portraits, Manet mixed the paint layers on the canvas during the painting process and placed hard shadow lines on top of certain areas.12 These shadows could not be scumbled into the surrounding area and therefore appear to lack nuance. It is as if he had reversed the academic order of the technical build-up of a painting or at least introduced his own variations. The black shadows on the red trousers of Le Fifre [Fig. 26] are a good example of this painting technique. The black and dark brown areas in the final layer of Manet’s paintings always have an oily texture. This is caused by the ratio of medium and pigments in the mixed paint as well as by the many layers and scrapings. Thus the underlayers and final layer retain a certain greasy appearance.

3. Manet's Brushes

The individual handwriting of the painter changes according to his choice of brushes. Their formal qualities act as a bridge between the driving ratio of the intellect on the one hand and the individual painter’s handwriting on the other. Manet chose to work with both new and traditional handmade brushes made from the hair of different animals, for example hair that was taken from the ear of the sable. Sable hair, which came from Russia, was strong and flexible and could be loaded with large quantities of thin paint. Manet often used this type of brush for the outlines of his figures. The excessive use of medium, however, caused ‘natural’ runs of paint on the canvas, which Manet simply left untouched. They would be overpainted during the further completion of the painting anyway.

Fig. 27 Édouard Manet, La Blonde aux Seins Nus, 1878

Fig. 28 Detail La Blonde aux Seins Nus. Background top right shows how Manet fills in a volume or background During his training with Thomas Couture, Manet will undoubtedly have learned which brushes were traditionally used for the étude, the ébauche and the fini. However, Manet’s selection of brushes was not dictated by tradition. It was largely determined by the dimensions of the canvas, the place of the different paint layers in the build-up, and the intended subject of the painting. For example, according to academic tradition, a broad brushstroke is used in the underlayer. Manet, however, also used it in the final layer and so created a visual shock effect which was the result of a literal increase in scale. Understanding this change of scale is vital for the interpretation of his whole oeuvre.

4. The Development of Manet's Painting Hand

Essentially, each movement of the painter’s hand can be reduced to a line (–) or curve (O) and to the interaction between these two forms creates invariants that define the artist's 'handwriting'.15 This also applies for the variants, but with the essential difference that the objective of the maker’s pictorial vision changes in accordance with his conscious choices. After all, Manet always introduced certain variations to ensure that the end results would not all look ‘alike’.

Invariant aspects of Manet’s 'handwriting' are mainly found in the étude layers of his work.16 Manet is most free when he is working on these layers, but he also knows that these layers will be smoothed away as he works towards the end result. As a result, his disposition when working on the étude layer could be described as spontaneous.

The selection of Manet’s distinctive lines was made on the basis of their recurrence in a range of his works. These lines therefore belong to the invariants of his technical build-up and 'handwriting'. Manet’s variants clearly reflect his tentative search for solutions during the process of painting; they largely determine the appearance of the end result.

If we now look at Manet’s brushwork, we see that he applies his strokes with his right hand and generally places average pressure on the brush. He chooses not to put too much pressure on the brush in order to achieve greater fluidity.17 Manet held the brush in the middle or below the middle of the handle, and pointed it forwards.

Fig. 29 Édouard Manet, Le Bateau Goudronné, 1873, oil on canvas, 24 x 19.6 inches (61.2 x 50 cm), Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia

Fig. 30 Detail Le Bateau Goudronné In conclusion, we present a list of distinctive features that will allow us to analyze the brushstroke in Manet’s works. These criteria are based on the concept of spontaneity and will be analyzed in those works that are indisputably from Manet’s hand. In the analysis of the painting technique of Jobarde the following recurrent aspects were found:

• Type of line • Rhythm and speed • Length of lines • Direction of movement • Regular versus irregular forms • Negative forms

5. Analysis of Painting Technique in Jobarde

The following analysis of the painting technique of Jobarde is based on those aspects that are visible with the naked eye and that display the distinctive features of Manet’s individual painter’s 'handwriting'. In order to establish a connection between the painting technique of Jobarde and Manet’s other known work, we will refer to pictorial concepts and discuss them in relation with his oeuvre. Jobarde will then be placed within that general context on the basis of Manet’s painting technique.

The absence of a polished, academic fini is a result of Manet’s decision not to consider étude, ébauche and fini as consecutive stages in the build-up of a painting. These variations form a breach with the official academic style and resulted from Manet’s experimentation with the possibilities that painting as a medium has to offer and his desire for innovation.

In Jobarde, the horse, which is painted realistically, appears to have been executed in a way that is most in accord with the traditional fini. But on closer observation, it becomes clear that the legs of the horse have been handled as an ébauche, while the harness is executed as a fini. The hands of the Amazon have been painted as an étude. The sky has the more traditional finish of a fini. The combination of étude and ébauche has been smoothed over with a ‘pounded’ final layer that was loosely applied wet on dry with a medium length brush.

Fig. 31 Outlines of Jobarde. It looks as if the central figure was simply cut out and pasted onto the background. Mixing Background & Foreground/Isolating the Central Subject

Manet generally allowed the background and foreground of his paintings to merge in such a way that they sometimes became indistinguishable. He did this by using a wet in wet technique to mix areas of the background with the outlines of the figure on the foreground. There is depth in the figure, but not in the surrounding space, which is perceived as a flat surface.

Looking at Jobarde, we see that the outlines of the central figure, the Amazon and her horse, merge with the background of the painting [Fig. 31]. It is as if the central figure has simply been cut out and pasted onto the background. The background and the foreground have almost no depth; extra layers of paint in the same tone as the main figure have even been added between the horse’s legs and the left arm and body of the Amazon, further abolishing the difference between background and foreground. The academic build-up sequence of the painting has been reversed. This variation in build-up is one of the distinctive features of Manet’s painting technique.

Contradictory Perspective & Adjustment of Perspective

Manet's use of perspective in Jobarde creates confusion. Not only does the horse have its own individual perspective, but the model and the environment do as well. In total, three perspectives have been incorporated: that of the horse, that of the Amazon, and that of the environment.

The horizon in Manet’s paintings was often placed high on the canvas with a slight curve, especially in his seascapes.21 In Jobarde, the curve of the horizon is masked by the hills that block the view. The hill on the right side, which was added at a later stage, corrects the ‘lob-sided’ composition and brings the horse and Amazon at the center in balance. The horizon in Jobarde was initially drawn much higher on the canvas.22

The Relationship between Details & The Whole

Even in his early work, Manet had a particular idea about the relationship between the proportions of subjects and figures. We can ascribe many of his choices to a conception of perspective and proportions rooted in his love of caricature (Painting Technique Analysis 1.1).