The Dead Toreador, 1864
Edouard Manet
French, 1832-1883
Oil on canvas
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC
It is devastatingly good, one of the finest things Manet painted; a nerve-wracking instance of poison and its antidote administered with the same silver spoon, the same soft brush. At once sensational and austere, jolting and serene, macabre and pristine, it’s as fresh and unsettling as the day it was painted.
Originally formed part of a much larger painting, "Incident in the Bull Ring," which was exhibited at the 1864 Salon. Manet, dissatisfied with it, cut it in two. One half, "Bullfight," is in the Frick Collection in New York, and the other is this Dead Toreador, which was the lower part of the original work.
I like many critics, from his time, don't like the painting.
The Dead Toreador, 1864
Edouard Manet
French, 1832-1883
Oil on canvas
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC
It is devastatingly good, one of the finest things Manet painted; a nerve-wracking instance of poison and its antidote administered with the same silver spoon, the same soft brush. At once sensational and austere, jolting and serene, macabre and pristine, it’s as fresh and unsettling as the day it was painted.
Originally formed part of a much larger painting, "Incident in the Bull Ring," which was exhibited at the 1864 Salon. Manet, dissatisfied with it, cut it in two. One half, "Bullfight," is in the Frick Collection in New York, and the other is this Dead Toreador, which was the lower part of the original work.
I like many critics, from his time, don't like the painting.