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Impressionism & Post-Impressionism
Edouard Manet - The philosopher. Beggar with Oysters 1867 The philosopher. Beggar with Oysters |
Eva Gonzalès 1849 – 1883. French painter known for her depictions of contemporary Parisian life and an aesthetic that reflects the strong influence of her mentor, Édouard Manet. ArtsViewer.com |
From Art Institute of Chicago:
By age 30, Édouard Manet had gained recognition at the state-sponsored Salon exhibition in Paris and established himself as the artist to watch, creating new imagery for contemporary works that translated Old Master painting into a modern idiom. Here he looked to the 17th-century Baroque artist Diego Velázquez, whose two paintings of world-weary philosophers (Aesop and Menippus, both c. 1638) Manet had admired that year at the Museo del Prado in Madrid, Spain. Like Velázquez’s representation of the ancient stoics (whose poverty is associated with wisdom), Manet’s beggar-philosophers fit into the popular notion of the social outcast as a seer possessing rare insight.
This painting and Beggar with a Duffle Coat were probably conceived as companion pieces.
— Permanent collection label