The bunny

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The rabbit
Édouard Manet , 1866
62 × 48 cm
oil on canvas
Musée Angladon , Avignon

The rabbit (French: Le lapin or Un lepin ) is the title of a painting by the French painter Édouard Manet . The 62 × 48 cm picture, painted in oil on canvas, shows a dead rabbit as a hunting trophy. The model for this still life was a work by the painter Jean Siméon Chardin . Manet had The Rabbit etch an etching of which only a few prints have survived. The painting belongs to the collection of the Musée Angladon in Avignon .

description

Jean Siméon Chardin: Rabbits with hunting accessories

Manet's painting The Rabbit is based on the painting Lapin mort et attirail de chasse ( Dead rabbit and hunting utensils ) by the painter Jean Siméon Chardin. When Manet created his painting in 1866, the model was Chardin's only still life in the Louvre in Paris . In his work, Chardin shows a dead rabbit that was hung on a hook in a wall niche on the left hind leg. A black leather strap lies conspicuously around the rabbit's hind leg and protrudes down to two pockets next to the animal for the hunting accessories. The rabbit's head was placed on a stone slab protruding to the right, the forelegs hanging down over the edge. The front edge of the stone slab is reproduced in great detail, the visible crack underlining the theme of transience. Chardin has placed his signature on the left of this stone slab.

The two pictures by Manet and Chardin have a lot in common. Both pictures show the hunting trophy of a rabbit in a similar representation and design, both are mainly painted in shades of brown. They initially differ in size: While Chardin chose a canvas with the dimensions 81 × 65 cm for his rabbit , Manet reduced the subject to 62 × 48 cm. His view of the animal is closer to the subject. Where a round niche is indicated in Chardin, Manet shows an unclear spatial situation consisting of a back wall, right side wall and floor plate, each of which is cut off from the edges of the picture. A hook clearly protrudes from the rear wall, but remains without further use. The Manet's rabbit hangs on another, invisible hook. Both hind legs are tied together, the head is placed to the left on the base plate and the forelegs also find space on this surface. Noticeable is a blood stain on the floor plate in front of the animal's snout. In Manet's still life, too, there is a leather strap that is hanging down, but it is not placed conspicuously around the hind leg, but extends behind and next to the animal to the base plate. There is only a bag of hunting accessories at Manet. The painter has his picture on the back wall with “Ed. Manet ”signed. The painting is clearly lit in this area. Shadows behind the animal suggest a light source from above and in front. Especially the fur of the rabbit with its shades of brown, gray and white appears in the bright light.

Etching of the subject

Édouard Manet: The rabbit , etching

Manet seems to have been quite satisfied with the execution of his painting The Rabbit . On the one hand the exhibition of the picture organized by Manet in 1867 suggests this, on the other hand he executed the motif not only as an oil painting, but also as an etching. The exact date of the etching is unknown, but various art historians believe it was made a few years after the painting was completed. Only five prints of the etching are known. One of these was in the private collection of Manet's painter friend Edgar Degas . The other four prints are now in the collections of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, the Detroit Institute of Arts , the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and the Baltimore Museum of Art . The execution took place as drypoint etching on handmade paper ; the size of the etching is given as about 13.5 × 10.2 cm.

The composition of the etching has been transferred from the painting to the printing plate, while the prints on paper show the motif reversed. The execution of the etching is much freer and more sketchy than the detailed oil painting. For the art historian Gotthard Jedlicka , the etching is one of those works that show "an unusually rich and graduated manner, with the use of the instrument in the manner of the old masters". Juliet Wilson-Bareau suspects that "the thick burr on and around the rabbit ... can be traced back to a wiping or reworking of the erased lines". She also sees "a strange shadow in the upper right corner", which suggests a "damaged ground".

Manet's still life

There are two phases in Manet's oeuvre in which he painted a series of still lifes. On the one hand, he created several paintings in the 1860s, some of which were based on the Baroque models that were particularly popular in the Second Empire . On the other hand, from 1880 he turned to still life painting in the style of impressionism . The rabbit belongs to the group of pictures in which Manet referred to traditional still life painting. These are common in 17th century Dutch painting; Manet's subjects, however, go back more to French nature morte from this period. His painting Peony Stems with Secateurs from 1864 ( Musée d'Orsay , Paris) is reminiscent of hunting still lifes by Jean-Baptiste Oudry or Jean Siméon Chardin. The plant stem leaning against the wall anticipates the hung animal in the later still life of the rabbit . In the execution of the floral motif against a brown background and the flowers placed on a table top, there are also parallels to the picture The Rabbit . In the painting Salmon, Pike and Shrimp ( Norton Simon Museum , Pasadena) from 1864, Manet also depicts a still life on a table top against a dark background. As in The Rabbit , here he shows a dead animal that is intended for the menu. The kitchen table indicates the room in which the subject is located. A kitchen wall as a background is also conceivable for the picture The Rabbit . Another painting with direct reference to a model at Chardin is Manet's still life Die Brioche from 1870 ( Metropolitan Museum of Art , New York). In this picture, Manet refers to Chardin's painting of the same name, The Brioche , which only entered the Louvre collection in 1869.

  • Édouard Manet:
    Peony stem with secateurs
    1864

  • Édouard Manet:
    Salmon, pike and prawns
    1864

  • Édouard Manet:
    The Brioche
    1870

  • Jean Siméon Chardin:
    The Brioche
    1763

In the last years of his life, Manet devoted himself increasingly to still life painting. For the painter, already marked by illness, still lifes offered an easier implementation than the complex depictions of people for which he is best known. When painting still life, he didn't need to make appointments with models and the small-format pictures could be done while sitting. His work Still Life with Five Plums ( Museum of Fine Arts, Houston ) from 1880 shows the fruit again in front of a dark wall and on a dark surface. The painting in this picture differs significantly in its free execution from the work of the 1860s. In the painting Flowers in a Crystal Vase ( Musée d'Orsay , Paris) from around 1882, the motif is painted against a dark background and the brushwork - especially in the area of ​​the flowers - is clearly Impressionist style. Manet took up the subject of hunting still life again in 1881. In addition to a dead eagle owl ( Foundation EG Bührle Collection , Zurich), the work Der Hase ( National Museum Cardiff ) was created, the motif of which is close to the painting The Rabbit . In Der Hase , however, there is no reference to a baroque picture; it was created as a spontaneous implementation of a motif from Manet's immediate surroundings.

  • Édouard Manet:
    Still life with five plums
    1880

  • Édouard Manet:
    Flowers in a crystal vase
    around 1882

  • Édouard Manet:
    Dead Eagle Owl
    1881

  • Édouard Manet:
    The Hare
    1881

Provenance

Manet exhibited the painting The Rabbit along with other works in a separate pavilion on the edge of the world exhibition in 1867 . With this exhibition he hoped for an artistic breakthrough and promised a financial success through the sale of his pictures, but both failed. The rabbit initially remained in Manet's possession until he sold the picture to the baritone singer and art collector Jean-Baptiste Faure in 1873 . Faure owned the largest collection of his works during Manet's lifetime, including some major works. In 1906 Faure sold The Rabbit to the art dealer Paul Durand-Ruel . He sold the painting to the fashion designer Jacques Doucet in the same year . After his death in 1929, the picture was inherited by his wife Jeanne (1861–1958), then to his nephew Jean-Édouard Dubrujeaud (1880–1968) and then to his great-nephew Jean Angladon-Dubrujeaud (1906–1979). The latter's wife, Paulette Angladon-Dubrujeaud (1905–1988), bequeathed Jacques Doucet's art collection, which remained in the family's possession, to the Angladon-Dubrujeaud Foundation after her death. This foundation runs the Musée Angladon in Avignon, which also exhibits Manet's The Rabbit .

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ German title for example in Juliet Wilson-Bareau: Edouard Manet, das graphische Werk , p. 85.
  2. ^ French title Le lapin according to the French edition of the George Mauner catalog: Manet - the still life paintings ( Manet: les natures mortes ), p. 96. The title Un lepin can be found in the catalog raisonné of Denis Rouart, Daniel Wildenstein: Edouard Manet: Catalog raisonné , Volume 1, p. 82, No. 118.
  3. ^ Gary Tinterow, Henri Loyrette: Origins of Impressionism , 165.
  4. ↑ George Mauner: Manet - the still life paintings , S. 165th
  5. ↑ Information on the painting Lapin mort et attirail de chasse by Jean Siméon Chardin on the Louvre website
  6. ↑ a b Juliet Wilson-Bareau: Edouard Manet, das graphische Werk , p. 85.
  7. ↑ Information about the etching on the website of the Van Gogh Museum
  8. ↑ Information about the etching on the website of the Detroit Institute of Arts
  9. ↑ Information on the etching on the website of the Metropolitan Museum of Art
  10. ↑ Information about the etching on the website of the Baltimore Museum of Art
  11. ↑ The size indication 13.5 × 10.2 cm can be found in Juliet Wilson-Bareau: Edouard Manet, das graphische Werk , p. 85, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Baltimore Museum of Art. The Van Gogh Museum gives 13, 5 × 10.1 cm, the Detroit Institute of Arts mentions 13.7 × 10.2 cm. The paper itself is described with different sizes: Van Gogh Museum 36.4 × 26.6 cm, Detroit Institute of Arts 20 × 17.5 cm, Metropolitan Museum of Art 36.8 × 26.7 cm, Baltimore Museum of Art 15 , 8 × 11.3 cm. Juliet Wilson-Bareau does not provide any information on the paper format of the copy in a private collection.
  12. ↑ Gotthard Jedlicka: Manet , p. 236.
  13. ^ Françoise Cachin, Charles S. Moffett and Juliet Wilson-Bareau: Manet: 1832-1883 , p. 212.
  14. ^ Françoise Cachin, Charles S. Moffett and Juliet Wilson-Bareau: Manet: 1832–1883 , p. 211.
  15. ^ Anne Coffin Hanson: Edouard Manet. 1832-1883 , pp. 117-119.
  16. ↑ George Mauner: Manet - the still life paintings , p. 172.