This is the first exhibition in Spain devoted to Edouard Manet (1832-1883) and brings to Madrid some sixty of his finest paintings, as well as a selection of prints and drawings. The exhibition is part of an extensive collaboration with the Musée d’Orsay and the Metropolitan Museum of Art that recently organized the exhibition “Manet-Veláquez: the French Taste for Spanish Painting”, but  here the focus is exclusively on Manet. It explores the achievement of one of the most innovative and influential painters of the nineteenth century. Manet visited the Prado Museum in 1865 moved by his interest in Spanish painting and Spanish subjects, but also by his knowledge and admiration of old masters, like Titian and Rubens. This visit was proved fundamental for the development of his art.

More than thirty institutions and private collectors are contributing to the exhibition with very generous loans. Paintings like the The Balcony, The portrait of Emile  Zola (Paris, Musée d’Orsay), The Spanish Singer (New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art), The “Little chevaliers” (Virginia, Chrysler Museum of Art), Guitar and hat (Avignon, Musée Calvet), Before the mirror (New York, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum), the Portrait of Faure in the role of Hamlet (Hamburg, Kunsthalle) and In the Conservatory (Berlin, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Gemäldegalerie), will be shown in the Prado exhibition. A particular highlight will be the inclusion of three versions of Manet’s Execution of Maximilian, in which he treated on a monumental scale, a subject from contemporary history, the execution of the Emperor Maximilian of Mexico in 1867. 

The exhibition shows the evolution of Manet, from his earliest, more classical works, to the culmination of his career, exploring how his discovery of Spanish art stimulated him to define a modern manner of painting. The exhibition will be shown in the main galleries of the Prado, on the first floor, making clear the dialogue between Manet’s painting and that of the Spanish artists of the Golden Age and Goya, as well as Titian, Rubens and Veronese.

Curator: Manuela Mena, Senior Curator of Eighteenth century Painting (Museo Nacional del Prado) with the collaboration of a team of Spanish and international specialists.

Catalogue (Spanish and English): Includes essays on Edouard Manet’s life and art and his relationship with Spain.