Manet and Modern Beauty
Five years ago, the J. Paul Getty Museum acquired Édouard Manet’s Jeanne (Spring), 1882, for US$61 million – a record for the artist. It was a bold acquisition, for later Manet – he died in 1883 – has never enjoyed the critical esteem of the earlier. Absurdly so, if you recall that the incomparable Bar at the Folies Bergère was the Salon companion to Jeanne. According to Scott Allan, Jeanne was the more admired picture at the time. She was hailed as ‘an absolute masterpiece, the Mona Lisa of the master … a true Parisienne from the tip of her upturned nose to the end of her parasol that she holds with so much chic’ (Ernst Hoschede).
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