The Slow Official Recognition of Édouard Manet
- Art d'Histoire
- May 28
- 5 min read
The dynamics of validation and marginalization that punctuated the artist's career extended well beyond the death of Édouard Manet.
Without even mentioning the public that confused him with Monet and congratulated him for a work he had not painted — a confusion understandable by a single vowel —, Manet had to wait his turn to be officially recognized and awarded a medal.
And even then, even after being decorated and buried, his canvases would continue to tear apart, for a long time to come, a generally hostile administration.
The slow conquest of the official Salons
The beginning of the 1870s marks a transition phase for the artist, with the unusual public success of Le Bon Bock at the Salon of 1873. The jury seems to have forgiven his past punctuated by famous scandals, including those sparked by his Déjeuner sur l’herbe and his Olympia.
It is true that the canvas is of a reasonable size and in the dark vein of Dutch genre paintings.
His works are now regularly admitted to the Salons; entryism pays off. He, who is said to be the leader of the impressionists, is at the Salon when they organize their first exhibitions.
In 1873, 1874, 1875, 1877, 1879, he exhibits at the Salon de peinture et de sculpture, then at the Salon des artistes français at the beginning of the following decade, in 1880, 1881, and 1882. This succession of close dates leans in favor, if not of recognition, at least of a lifting of the barrage.
Better still, Manet benefits from the exempt status in 1880 — a new provision allowing him to submit his canvases without passing through the jury's examination thanks to the new regulations, since he is exempted from passing before the jury on the basis of an honorable mention dating back to his debut in 1861.
Finally in 1881, but just barely — 17 jurors out of 35 —, he obtains a second-class medal for his Portrait de M. Pertuiset, even though the level of finish leaves frankly to be desired.
In spite of his physical suffering which would soon cause his death, Manet made it a point of honor to visit the members who had supported his nomination to show them his gratitude, proof that he was a man of proper manners.
A growing number of critics, initially very hostile to his works, begins to revise their judgment, but there is fear of his influence on the youngest, those impressionists still known as intransigents.
Political support and the Legion
The artist's trajectory is sustained by the support of influential political figures, like his childhood and studio friend, Antonin Proust, a leading republican, close to Gambetta and assuming the duties of Minister of the Arts.
Even with Proust at the head of the administration, his visibility is not assured. Just as the high hanging of Olympia at the Salon of 1865 had been unfavorable, that of the minister's portrait is hardly better in 1880.
At the Salon of 1880, the Portrait d'Antonin Proust was deliberately placed in a dark space near a door, making the canvas difficult to appreciate. The painter confides to his minister friend that he welcomes this treatment with philosophy, aware that this relegation was a resurgence of old animosities.
The Republic had to apologize to him, however, since in early 1882, the State, represented in the person of his friend Proust… awarded him the cross of Knight of the Legion of Honor. He would henceforth be H.C., meaning hors concours (out of competition) at the Salon.
He is thus decorated after having been awarded a medal in less than 12 months. One can thus summarize the timeline of what would seem to be a forced-march institutionalization and recognition:
1880 exempted (the regulations of the new Salon recognize past mentions)
1881 medaled at the Salon
1882 decorated with the cross of Knight of the Legion of Honor
Institutional intransigence after his death
The passing of the artist in April 1883 does not soften the severity of the guardians of tradition.
In 1883, his reputation remains scandalous in the eyes of the institutions. An attempt to present a group of his canvases at the Triennale ends in a massive refusal: the jury rejects all of the submitted works, among which feature Dans la serre, Chez le Père Lathuille, Un bar aux Folies Bergère, and the Portrait d’Antonin Proust.
Tensions must in reality have been very high within the jury itself, since the examiners had initially accepted Jeanne and Un bar aux Folies Bergère. But they asked to see the canvases again… only to finally refuse the entire selection.
A respected artist, sitting on the jury, justified the exclusion by describing Manet's paintings as filth.
Concurrently, the academic painter Jean-Léon Gérôme actively intervened with the minister Jules Ferry to firmly oppose the organization of a posthumous exhibition at the École des Beaux-Arts, which would nevertheless take place.
He would be part, along with Bouguereau, of the old guard obstinately opposing the entry of Olympia into the Louvre, a problem posed by its legacy after a successful public subscription… but not supported by Proust.
An Unavoidable Artistic Legacy
Faced with the relentlessness of the institutional old guard, a conservative and respected art critic from Le Figaro, Alfred Wolff, whose ironic and virulent prose about the first impressionist exhibitions is memorable, ends up challenging the decisions of the conservative administration.
When, in 1883, the jury of the Triennale refuses all the Manets, Wolff objects, considering this decision to be a mistake, and even pays tribute to Le Jeune homme à l'épée.
One can read on the occasion of his review of Manet's studio sale at Drouot in early 1884:
“God knows how much I loved Manet”
State-sponsored exhibitions no longer legitimately had the right to censor the works of a great figure, but from there to accepting Olympia into the Louvre, it still took more than twenty years.
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