Edouard Manet (1832-1883) was born to the wealthy parents in Paris. At 18, winning the family's consent, he started to study art as an artist at the studio of Thomas Couture, a Salon artist. Eventually he frequently began to disagree with Thomas Couture on his subject matters and techniques. At 24 he left him. Later he studied the masterpieces of past masters at the Louvre and through his trips to Italy and Spain. Using the masterpieces as his motives, he produced many artworks with the emphasis on his modernity.
Throughout his life, he had determined that the Salon was the place to exhibit his new paintings and kept sending them despite many occasions of rejection. However, his innovative paintings often arose harsh criticism. The Picnic on the Grass (1963, Museum of Orsay) and Olympia (1863, Museum of Orsay) were in particular received the bombardment of criticism. These paintings depicted women in their most realistic ways while they are based on the past masterpieces. They claimed that he destroyed the respectable painting tradition.
Manet spent all his life in Paris, painting people in the ways they lived there. This "Woman Wearing a Hat with Silk Gauze" is a pastel painting and less than a third remains unpainted. It was painted in a crude and swift way but the face of the woman is very vividly rendered.
Anecdote
The condition a world famous pianist Mitsuko Uchida suggested for her first concert in a local city outside of Tokyo and Osaka was to visit Ohara Museum of Art after the rehearsal on the previous day of the concert.
Entering the museum, she proceeded to the second floor and wished to play the piano, Beohstein immediately. The audience comprised Reiko Ohara and myself only. While playing it, she accurately pointed out, "This Beohstein must be made some time between 1900 and 1910, wasn't it?" After playing it for a little more while, she then whispered, "Beohstein has a haltering sound and an inaudible condition."
In the meanwhile, she left the piano and started to see the paintings one after another in such a way as if she was skipping. Reaching "Woman Wearing a Hat with Silk Gauze" by Manet, she called out to me and asked," Mr. Hara, is this painting complete or incomplete?" She had a point there. One third of it remains unpainted and no signature can be seen on it. My reply was, "After painting this far, I speculate, he thought this was complete as it accomplished a good balance and put his brushes away." Ms. Uchida, wearing a beaming smile on her face, said, "I know. I know. It is also true with Schubert's Symphony "Unfinished". "It does not take the four movement configuration but it is the symphony "Unfinished" with two movements only. But that is complete in its own way, " she continued, "So will be my Schubert tomorrow, as well."
(Omit)
At the concert next day, she played Schubert and Schonberg. The first piece, Schubert's piano Sonata Number 15 ended after the second movement. I was remembering Ms. Uchida' words, "the two movements could express everything he wanted, instead of four." I was deeply moved.
Excerpts from p.140 "A guest we received at 8 p.m." in "Together with 29 million people" published by Ohara Museum of Art on November 6, 2000.
Woman Wearing a Hat with Silk Gauze
Commentary
Edouard Manet (1832-1883) was born to the wealthy parents in Paris. At 18, winning the family's consent, he started to study art as an artist at the studio of Thomas Couture, a Salon artist. Eventually he frequently began to disagree with Thomas Couture on his subject matters and techniques. At 24 he left him. Later he studied the masterpieces of past masters at the Louvre and through his trips to Italy and Spain. Using the masterpieces as his motives, he produced many artworks with the emphasis on his modernity.
Throughout his life, he had determined that the Salon was the place to exhibit his new paintings and kept sending them despite many occasions of rejection. However, his innovative paintings often arose harsh criticism. The Picnic on the Grass (1963, Museum of Orsay) and Olympia (1863, Museum of Orsay) were in particular received the bombardment of criticism. These paintings depicted women in their most realistic ways while they are based on the past masterpieces. They claimed that he destroyed the respectable painting tradition.
Manet spent all his life in Paris, painting people in the ways they lived there. This "Woman Wearing a Hat with Silk Gauze" is a pastel painting and less than a third remains unpainted. It was painted in a crude and swift way but the face of the woman is very vividly rendered.
Anecdote
The condition a world famous pianist Mitsuko Uchida suggested for her first concert in a local city outside of Tokyo and Osaka was to visit Ohara Museum of Art after the rehearsal on the previous day of the concert.
Entering the museum, she proceeded to the second floor and wished to play the piano, Beohstein immediately. The audience comprised Reiko Ohara and myself only. While playing it, she accurately pointed out, "This Beohstein must be made some time between 1900 and 1910, wasn't it?" After playing it for a little more while, she then whispered, "Beohstein has a haltering sound and an inaudible condition."
In the meanwhile, she left the piano and started to see the paintings one after another in such a way as if she was skipping. Reaching "Woman Wearing a Hat with Silk Gauze" by Manet, she called out to me and asked," Mr. Hara, is this painting complete or incomplete?" She had a point there. One third of it remains unpainted and no signature can be seen on it. My reply was, "After painting this far, I speculate, he thought this was complete as it accomplished a good balance and put his brushes away." Ms. Uchida, wearing a beaming smile on her face, said, "I know. I know. It is also true with Schubert's Symphony "Unfinished". "It does not take the four movement configuration but it is the symphony "Unfinished" with two movements only. But that is complete in its own way, " she continued, "So will be my Schubert tomorrow, as well."
(Omit)
At the concert next day, she played Schubert and Schonberg. The first piece, Schubert's piano Sonata Number 15 ended after the second movement. I was remembering Ms. Uchida' words, "the two movements could express everything he wanted, instead of four." I was deeply moved.
Excerpts from p.140 "A guest we received at 8 p.m." in "Together with 29 million people" published by Ohara Museum of Art on November 6, 2000.
Painting
Apple Picking
Small Table in Evening Dusk
Song of Songs (Le Cantique des Cantiques)
Haystacks
Waterlilies
Cliff of Gréville
Coutyard at the ‘Rondest House’, Pontoise
Woman Wearing a Hat with Silk Gauze
Delightful Land (Te Nave Nave Fenua)
All Things Die, But All Will Be Resurrected through God’s Love
Wave
Carriage and Pair
Three Dancers in Red Costume
Autumn Sea
Old Horse in the Wasteland
Landscape
Festival of Venis
Hair
Winter Orchard
Beethoven
Landscape of La Ferté-Milon
Annunciation