Spring colours filled our classrooms today as students created their own still life paintings inspired by Edouard Manet. We started the project by drawing a vase and then using chalk pastel students coloured in the background. Next an oil pastel was used to colour in the vase and tulips were created.
The last step was to paint over the vase with white paint and then use the hard end of their paint brush to carve in designs.
They turned out beautifully!
“There are no lines in nature, only areas of colour, one against another.” – Edouard Manet
Edouard Manet was born in Paris, France in the year 1832. He was born into an upper-class family with strong political connections. His uncle encouraged him to pursue painting and took young Manet to the Louvre Museum in Paris for inspiration.
When he was 13 he enrolled in a special drawing course to pursue his interest in art.
On the insistence of his family he trained to join the navy. Twice he failed the navy entrance exams and only then did his family relent and allow him to pursue his art career.
Manet opened a studio in 1856. His style of painting was characterised by loose brush strokes and simplification of details. His favourite subjects at this time were singers, gypsies and people in cafes.
His work has been considered as an example of ‘early modern’, due to his black outlining of figures and the material quality of the paint.
He became friends with the Impressionists; Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, Auguste Renoir, and many others. He disagreed with the Impressionists and felt they should stay with the traditional Salon and exhibit their paintings there.
Manet died in 1883 at the age of 51.