Édouard Manet is a painter who demonstrates he is dynamic, original and inspirational through his thought-provoking paintings. A major motif of his is to show the artifice of painting by disregarding realistic dynamics and challenging the audience’s narrative[i]. Manet expects and acknowledges that the viewers know “the effect is make-believe and to savor the dissonance between a painting’s intractable means and its causal, available overall look”[ii]. While Manet is a modernist painter, his contributions inspire modernist and impressionist movements[iii]. Throughout his career, Manet witnessed changes in politics, social interactions and art. It is therefore unfair to classify Manet as a certain type of painter or narrator because of his fluidity as a painter and his variety of works. His ability to be fluid with style and thought gives the audience a chance to develop different narratives, like in his 1868 painting On the Beach (Figure 1). This paper explores On the Beach within the context of narratives that reflect on Manet’s evolution as a painter.

 

France was experiencing a series of international and domestic changes in 1868. Cultural changes were perhaps most important to Manet. New technology allowed him to report current events faster than ever. The increased freedom of speech allowed him to establish more openly his thoughts about France[iv]. The increased recognition of non-bourgeois classes impacted French popular culture and therefore what was popular to paint and interpret. One way to look at On the Beach is through the idea of the popular.

 

On the Beach uses modernist techniques by combining the past and the contemporary. Manet includes the past stylistically with color and horizontal space. The blue and red colors are muted to keep one color from attracting too much attention. Blotches of subdued shades interrupt the earthy tones but also blend the color palate into one. Manet alludes to two off stage presences. In the lower right, an unrecognizable figure is cut off by the edge of the canvas and the same thing nearly happens to the sailboat in the upper left corner. This method was performed in historical paintings such as The Death of Socrates (Figure 2), made in 1787 by Jacques-Louis David, where someone was partially in the scene to extend the scene’s horizon[v]. The setting of this painting is the landscape, a subject that is historically low on the genre spectrum, but relevant due to what was popular among contemporary people.

 

Landscape in 1860s was contemporary because popular culture is linked to the traditional forms of life, extending beyond the bourgeois classes into the lives of common and struggling people and during this time Parisians sought relaxation outside of the city[vi]. Like in The Boaters, Argenteuil (Figure 3), which Manet painted in 1863, he interrupts the traditional painting, here the beach, with contemporary figures to modernize the scene as contemporary Parisians could have been at the beach[vii]. While the beach painted is not outwardly specific to any one beach, it is most likely a beach in Boulogne-Sur-Mer. In 1868, the same year this picture was painted, Manet took many vacations with his family to Boulogne-Sur-Mer[viii]. In this town, the seascapes and the people he was surrounded with inspired Manet. Manet went to Boulogne-Sur-Mer with his family, including his sister-in-law whom he used as a model in many paintings[ix]. Manet’s paintings usually included costume pieces obviously painted as he was looking at a model in his studio. It is possible that his sister-in-law was a model for this painting, posing as one of the figures shown[x]. On the Beach depicts a space that was important and popular to him and the audience.

 

In a different scenario, this painting presents many impossible and unrelated features, which show how Manet’s personal motif was painting to paint. He did not hide the fact that he painted in a studio, creating a very distinct “cut-and-paste style”[xi]. This style refers to how he places figures in the scene without changing their size or adjusting the surrounding space. This results in multiple pictures on one canvas. For example, in his 1867 painting Vue de L’Exposition Universelle, esquisse (Figure 4), Manet’s characters are performing specific actions that do not coordinate with any other character in the scene. In On the Beach, there is a group of swimmers in the same space of water, but it is not clear how they are related to one another or if they even know each other at all. While it seems as if the two women on the beach are familiar, they do not participate with the figures in the water besides watching each other from a distance.

 

Cutting the canvas into sections emphasizes such independence of characters[xii]. The posture of the red dress woman nearly cuts the canvas into two diagonal halves, an idea from Japanese prints that became popular with impressionists. He also includes Spanish painter Francisco Goya’s style in On the Beach because he covered a girl laying on the beach in clothing whom would otherwise have been presented in a much more erotic tone. Manet then found, like Goya, a “unique combination of physical and psychological, or real and allegorical, that expressed the temper of modern life and sexual exchange”[xiii]. These characters are in the foreground before the sea, presenting another physical impossibility. The water does have depth and appears like a wall. Manet looked for flat sites to include a wall-like background[xiv]. This is done purposefully to create a sense of flatness in the painting, further presenting an artificial landscape.

 

The unique relationship with nature is also apparent in the shadows. When on the beach, the shadows appear from a sun on the right. The shadows of the swimmers appear is from a sun from inside of the painting. Meanwhile, the water is lightest on the left side, from a third sun on the left. However, his swift brush strokes used to paint the scene are consistent. The lack of details allows the audience to create who the people are - the figures on the beach could be anyone. Manet’s paintings make the audience question what is physically going on. Extending upon the eye contact made by the woman in the red dress, the scene’s lack of clarity forces the audience to ask questions about the who, what, where, when, why.

 

The emotional meaning behind this painting that must be considered. Manet could use this painting to challenge the audience to reflect on the peace, or lack thereof in their lives: “In 1863, he had been thinking primarily of the history painting and of modernizing it by the irruptive presence of his contemporary figures. By 1974, he has become much more the naturalist, drawing upon a well-known, not an imaginary setting, and on that had distinctive resonance in the contemporary mind"[xv]. He may have chosen the beach because of the presumed connection many Parisians have with the spot available to everyone. On the Beach correlates to Gustave Courbet’s 1857 painting The Young Ladies of the Banks of the Seine (Figure 5). Both paintings depict a waterside scene and challenge audience to interact with the painting. The theme of non-bourgeoisie women who are relaxing is evident because neither group of women is upper class due to their of their relaxed and unkempt way of dressing and posture. The looks given to the audience are important because the audience, the upper class, is intruding on the character’s space.

 

In Manet’s version, the woman’s facial features are blurred: her eyes and nose are only visible through three brushstrokes. Her titled head and posture extend from her personal space to the audience’s. The audience’s narrative could range from a multitude of interpretations due to the subtle details and invocation of personal responses. As the spectator, they are witnessing low cultural forms of leisure, which could be seen in the serenity of the beach or subtle allusions about their status.

 

The latter is reflected throughout the impressionist movement Manet godfathered: the working class never stops working. While it is true that Courbet and Manet depicted a leisurely day and non-bourgeoisie women, Manet depicts the two in a way that shows a non-bourgeoisie woman could never experience complete leisure. To illustrate this, the postures of a woman swimming on the left and of the woman on the beach in the red dress allude to The Gleaners (Figure 6) by Jean-François Millet, in 1857, from a different audience perspective. Millet’s scene shows the strenuous tasks of the lowest class of the French countryside to survive. The hunched over stance of the red dress woman closely simulates that of the closest woman in The Gleaners. Furthermore, the woman on the left swimming has both of her arms stretched out, as if she was picking the small swimmer up from the water, but still showing how that is work. Combining this notion with a scene that should be peaceful creates a narrative that while the lower classes can enjoy leisurely activities like playing on the beach; they never fully escape the confinements of the world they live in. The characters are “imaginative members of the middle class who accepted the norms of freedom, but lacked the economic means to attain them, were spiritually torn by a sense of helpless isolation in an anonymous indifferent mass”[xvi]. In this way, Manet is able to bring out in his work a truth that the upper class Parisian may find disturbing: the lower class cannot easily escape their hard status.

 

Exploring On the Beach presents a multitude of narratives that reflect Manet in 1868 France. In 2013, the painting is displayed in the Detroit Institute of Arts. In a city surrounded by lakes and populated with the pride of the working class, On the Beach takes its place in the section “Modernism: Rebellion Against the Salon”. This recognizes Manet’s place in French Modernism painting in regards to how he did not abide completely by tradition. Manet’s ability to include multiple impossibilities into one scene presents the artifice of painting. This artifice is complimented with narrative ideas. The audience is half in On the Beach and is figuratively included in the painting. The stylistic inclusion of the past and the future is appropriate because this painting was completed in the middle of his career. Manet’s combinations of physical, emotional and style show his evolution as a painter and his exploration of different styles. On the Beach reflects many movements taking place in 1868 France and in Manet’s own life, but is open to many interpretations among different audiences through exploring the painting’s many layers.

 

[i] Lay, Howard. History of Art 271, University of Michigan.[ii] Clark, TJ. The Painting of Modern Life: Paris in the Art of Manet and His Followers. 3. Print.[iii] Farwell, Beatrice. Oxford Art Online. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Dec. 2013. <http://www.oxfordartonline.com.proxy.lib.umich.edu/subscriber/article/grove/art/T053749?q=manet&search=quick&pos=1&_start=1>.[iv] Philbeam, Pamela. Revolutionary France: 1788 - 1880. Oxford University Press, 43. Print.[v] Lay, Howard. History of Art 271, University of Michigan.[vi] Hall, Stuart. People's History and Socialist Theory. Boston: Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd, 1981. 237. Print.[vii] Blake, Nigel and Frascina, Francis. Modern Art Practices and Debates: Modernity and Modernism. Oxford University Press,113. Print.[viii] Farwell, Beatrice.[ix] Farwell, Beatrice.[x] Lay, Howard. History of Art 271, University of Michigan.[xi] Lay, Howard. History of Art 271, University of Michigan.[xii] Farwell, Beatrice.[xiii] Eisenman, Stephen F. Nineteenth Century Art: A Critical History. Second ed. Thames and Hudson, 90. Print.[xiv] Blake, Nigel and Frascina, Francis. Modern Art Practices and Debates: Modernity and Modernism. 113.[xv] Blake, Nigel and Frascina, Francis. Modern Art Practices and Debates: Modernity and Modernism. 111.[xvi] Clark, TJ. The Painting of Modern Life: Paris in the Art of Manet and His Followers. 4.