Édouard Manet 1867

Henri Fantin-Latour painted this portrait of Édouard Manet with oils on canvas. A traditional art material, oil paint allows for the blending of colors and the creation of realistic depictions of the figure. Yet it's intriguing to consider this portrait in light of social issues of labor, politics, and consumption. Manet, as a well-known painter in his own right, would likely have been a consumer of art materials himself, contributing to the demand for pigments, brushes, and canvases. The portrait captures Manet’s social standing through the clothes he wears, like the meticulously rendered textures of the top hat, the tailored suit and a simple walking stick, all emblems of bourgeois life. Through Fantin-Latour's choice of materials and his attention to detail, the portrait reveals the complex relationship between artistic creation, social class, and the wider economic forces at play in 19th-century France.