artist tuesday: édouard manet

I have got to branch out from the Impressionists, I know, but I’m just so in love with them! Anyway, today’s artist is among the most influential in the transition from Realism to Impressionism. Not be confused with the similarly named and equally talented Monet (though they were friends!), Manet definitely knew how to stir the pot. His relatively risque pieces caused so much controversy at the Paris Salon (one of the world’s largest art shows at the time) that it was sent to the ” Salon de Refuses”— the Salon of the Rejected. Regardless of his standing with the established art community in Paris at the time, Manet is one of the most famous painters of the 20th century, and his two pieces below are often considered the beginning of modern art.