Le Balcon






















When Manet painted this piece, scenes of bourgeois life were in vogue. Yet The Balcony went against the conventions of the day. All the subjects were close acquaintances of the artist, especially Berthe Morisot who here, pictured sitting in the foreground, makes her first appearance in Manet's work, and who went on to become one of his favourite models. The painting tells no story or anecdote; the protagonists are frozen, as if isolated in an interior dream, evidence that Manet was freeing himself from academic constraints, despite the obvious reference to Goya's Majas at the Balcony.
At its presentation at the 1869 Salon, this enigmatic group portrait was overwhelmingly misunderstood. "Close the shutters!" was the sarcastic reaction of the caricaturist Cham while another critic attacked "this gross art" and Manet who "lowered himself to the point of being in competition with the painters of the building trade". The vividness of the colours, the green of the balustrade and shutters, the blue of the man's tie, as well as the brutal contrast between the white dresses and the darkness of the background, were perceived as provocation. The hierarchy usually attached to human figures and objects has been disregarded: the flowers receiving more detail than some of the faces.
It is not surprising then, that a painting which took such liberties with tradition, convention and realism so shocked its early public.
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avec cadre H. 192 ; L. 147 cm
Object details
History - Provenance
- 1884, 4 et 5 février, vente Manet à l'hôtel Drouot, Paris, n°2
- de 1884 à 1894, dans la collection Caillebotte, Gustave, acquis à la vente Manet des 4 et 5 février 1884
- 1894, accepté par l'Etat à titre de legs de Gustave Caillebotte au Musée du Luxembourg (exposé en 1896)
- de 1896 à 1929, musée du Luxembourg, Paris
- 1929, attribué au musée du Louvre, Paris
- de 1929 à 1947, musée du Louvre, Paris
- de 1947 à 1986, musée du Louvre, galerie du Jeu de Paume, Paris
- 1986, affecté au musée d'Orsay, Paris
Exhibitions
- Salon - palais des Champs Elysées - France, Paris, 1869
- Exposition des Beaux-Arts - organisme inconnu - Belgique, Bruxelles, 1869
- Exposition des oeuvres de Edouard Manet - Ecole nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts - France, Paris, 1884
- Manet - galerie Matthiesen - Allemagne, Berlin, 1928
- Au profit des Amis du Luxembourg - galerie Marcel Bernheim - France, Paris, 1928
- Exposition Manet, 1832-1887 - musée de l'Orangerie - France, Paris, 1932
- Hommage à Manet - musée de l'Orangerie - France, Paris, 1952
- Jubilé du Museum of Modern Art - Museum of Modern Art - Etats-Unis, New York, 1955
- Manet : 1832-1883 - Galeries nationales du Grand Palais - France, Paris, 1983
- Manet, 1832-1883 - Metropolitan Museum of Art - Etats-Unis, New York, 1983
- Manet - Ordrupgaard - Danemark, Copenhague, 1989
- La modernité - Collections du musée d'Orsay - Metropolitan Art Museum - Japon, Tokyo, 1996
- La modernité - Collections du musée d'Orsay - City museum - Japon, Kobe, 1996
- Paris-Bruxelles/Bruxelles-Paris - Galeries nationales du Grand Palais - France, Paris, 1997
- Paris-Bruxelles/Bruxelles-Paris - musée des Beaux-Arts - Belgique, Gand, 1997
- Centième anniversaire du musée Pouchkine - The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts - Russie, Fédération de, Moscou, 1998
- Berthe Morisot 1841-1895 - musée des Beaux-Arts - France, Lille, 2002
- Berthe Morisot 1841-1895 - fondation Pierre Gianadda - Suisse, Martigny, 2002
- Manet-Velàzquez : la manière espagnole au XIXe siècle - musée d'Orsay - France, Paris, 2002 - 2003
- Manet/Velazquez: The French taste for Spanich painting - Metropolitan Museum of Art - Etats-Unis, New York, 2003
- Manet en el Prado - Museo Nacional del Prado - Espagne, Madrid, 2003 - 2004
- The Impressionists - Masterpieces from the Musée d'Orsay - National Gallery of Victoria - 2004
- Chefs-d'oeuvre du musée d'Orsay pour le 150e anniversaire de la galerie Tretyakov - The State Tretyakov Gallery - Russie, Fédération de, Moscou, 2006
- Créativité. Exposition universelle de Shangaï - Pavillon France - Chine, Shanghai, 2010
- Manet, inventeur du Moderne - musée d'Orsay - France, Paris, 2011
- Manet : ritorno a Venezia - Palazzo Ducale - Italie, Venise, 2013
- Faces of Impressionism. Portraits from the Musée d'Orsay - Kimbell Art Museum - Etats-Unis, Fort Worth, 2014 - 2015
- Impressionisti dal Musée d'Orsay. Tête à tête - Complesso del Vittoriano - Italie, Rome, 2015 - 2016
- Manet sehen. Der Blick der Moderne - Hamburger Kunsthalle - Allemagne, Hambourg, 2016
- Spectaculaire Second Empire - musée d'Orsay - France, Paris, 2016 - 2017
- Manet e la Parigi moderna - Palazzo Reale - Italie, Milan, 2017
Bibliography
- Jamot, Paul ; Wildenstein, Georges ; Bataille, Marie-Louise, Manet, catalogue critique, Paris, Imprimerie Léon Masotte, 1932, n°150
- Tabarant, Adolphe, Manet et ses oeuvres, Paris, Gallimard, 1947, n°141
- Orienti, Sandra, Tout l'oeuvre peint d'Édouard Manet, Paris, Flammarion, 1970, n°121 A
- Rouart, Denis ; Wildenstein, Daniel, Edouard Manet. Catalogue raisonné. Tome I. Peintures, Lausanne/Paris, La Bibliothèque des arts, 1975, n°134
- Anonyme, Manet : 1832-1883, [Exposition, Paris, Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, 22 avril-1er août 1983, New York, Metropolitan museum of art, 10 septembre-27 novembre 1983], Paris, Réunion des musées nationaux, 1983, n°115
- Compin, Isabelle ; Roquebert, Anne, Catalogue sommaire illustré des peintures du Musée du Louvre et du Musée d'Orsay, Paris, Réunion des musées nationaux, 1986, vol.4, p.70
- Compin, Isabelle [coordination] ; Lacambre, Geneviève [coordination] ; Roquebert, Anne, Musée d'Orsay. Catalogue sommaire illustré des peintures, Paris, Réunion des musées nationaux, 1990, vol.2, p.299
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