Lot Essay
Polichinelle is a classic example of Manet's full-length portraits of actors and performers, a genre that fascinated the painter throughout his career. Manet made approximately a dozen works of this kind, including some of his most famous and important portraits, such as Lola de Valence (Rouart and Wildenstein no. 53), Le fifre (Rouart and Wildenstein no. 113), Le matador saluant (Rouart and Wildenstein no. 111), and L'actor tragique (Rouart and Wildenstein no. 106). Like other works in the group, the present picture shows the performer striking a characteristic pose with theatrical flourish, and yet seemingly isolated against a neutral or ambiguous background. Typically, Manet used the contrast of theatricality and isolation to create a mood of ironic poignancy. This is certainly true in the present painting, whose air of tender poetry is in keeping with the traditional view of Polichinelle. Indeed, the most important model for Polichinelle may have been Watteau's haunting picture of Gilles, a work which had been exhibited for the first time in 1860, and which entered the Louvre in 1869. In its sympathetic and touching portrayal of a humorous figure, Manet's image may also recall Velasquez's paintings of court jesters--paintings that Manet deeply loved. The brushwork of Polichinelle is extremely free, and shows Manet's debt not only to Velasquez, but also to Hals, another painter he admired and imitated. In 1873 Manet also painted Le bon bock (Rouart and Wildenstein no. 186) a work directly inspired by Hals. Of Manet's series of portraits of performers, Polichinelle is one of only two works still in private hands; all other examples of this group are in major museums.
Polichinelle was a figure of exceptional interest for the painter, and in 1873 and 1874, Polichinelle was at the center of Manet's art. During this period, in addition to the present picture, Manet made three other works of the character: a loose, preparatory sketch for the painting in which the figure appears in a more awkward pose; a watercolor exhibited at the Salon of 1874 (Rouart and Wildenstein, no. 212); and a seven-color lithograph based on the watercolor (fig. 1). Polichinelle also appears at the left in the artist's celebrated Le bal de l'opra from 1873-1874 (Rouart and Wildenstein no. 216; fig. 2). Also remarkable is Polichinelle's presence in the second frontispiece of the 1862 portfolio of Manet's etchings (fig. 3). On this basis, it has been suggested that Manet even identified with the character. For example, discussing the print, Jean C. Harris has stated: "It [Polichinelle] also seems a sort of self-portrait; the artist sees himself in the guise of a performer, an entertainer of the common man. Here Manet indicates his scorn for the [academic] 'peintre d'histoire' (J.C. Harris, Edouard Manet, The Graphic Work, San Francisco, 1990, p. 132).
The Pellerin Polichinelle was seen in Manet's studio in December 1873 by Lon Duchemin, who mentioned it in an article he published under the pseudonym Fervacques in Le Figaro:
On the walls hang some of the painter's works. Firstly, the famous Djeuner sur l'herbe rejected by the jury who, foolishly, have failed to understand that it showed, not a nude woman, but a woman undressed, which is something different. Then, paintings exhibited at different period: La leon de musique, Le balcon, La belle Olympia . . . Then, a Marine, a sketch of two women seated in open fields, with a nearby village, a portrait of a woman and an exquisite Polichinelle, in a very jaunty pose.
While we were admiring this painting, so viciously attacked and yet so full of talent, Manet painted a watercolor of another Polichinelle, who poses in the middle of the studio, dressed in his charming and traditional costume. It is enlivened with a delicate, colorful and spiritual touch, different from the usual manner of the painter (quoted D. Rouart and D. Wildenstein, op. cit., vol. I, p. 18).
This extraordinary description is rich with important early information regarding the picture; for example, that Polichinelle's costume was regarded as "charming and traditional," and that in 1873 the painting was already considered "exquisite . . . and full of talent," and yet, like other early works by Manet, had been "viciously attacked."
Manet exhibited his watercolor of Polichinelle at the Salon in 1874; and he sponsored a contest of poetry to accompany a lithograph of the image. The entry by Charles Cros reads:
Il est laid, doublement bossu, canaille, ivrogne,
Il se moque pas mal de l'ordre social,
Des sergents, de la mort au baiser glacial
Et du diable. Pourtant nous l'aimons, car il cogne.
Bossu du nez, bossu du dos, bossu du torse,
Recevant la police grand coup de bton.
Il est trs immoral. Pourquoi l'adore-t-on?
C'est qu'au fond l'homme pur prfre au droit la force.
Sur qui va-t-il taper, Monsieur Polichinelle?
Le guet est trangl, tous les diables ont fui;
Il a mme tu la camarade ternelle . . .
Mais il reste l-bas ce grand louche, l'Ennui.
Manet's friend Thodore de Banville, supplied the winning entry:
Fearsomely pink, eyes glinting with the glare of Hell,
Brazen and drunk--divine--that's him, Polichinelle.
The first edition of the lithograph was to be sent to the 8,000 subscribers of the republican newspaper Le Temps, but the print was surpressed by the authorities; at least 1,500 impressions were destroyed, and the stones were confiscated by the police. The reason for the suppression is a matter of speculation. Theodore Reff has suggested that the figure of Polichinelle bears a striking resemblance to Marchal MacMahon, the reactionary general who had led the repression of the Paris Commune in 1871 and was elected President of the Republic in May 1873 (T. Reff, Manet and Modern Paris, Chicago and London, p. 124). "His stance is indeed that of a general inspecting his troops," Reff writes, "and the bat he holds behind his back may allude to 'Marchal Baton,' MacMahon's nickname, just as the bicorned hat he wears en bataillon may have Napoleonic connotation." Reff also notes that the figure may be based on Meissonier's Polichinelle (fig. 4), exhibited in 1860 and widely circulated as an etching. That Manet served under the reactionary painter in the Franco-Prussian War may add a note of personal irony to this commentary about republicanism and the forces of reaction in politics and culture.
The political reading of the theme, however, has been repeatedly questioned. Concerning the print and the incident over its seizure by the police, another author notes:
If the lithograph was intended as a political caricature, the choice of the character Polichinelle was a puzzling one. Polichinelle was firmly established as a darling of the French people long before the time of this work, not only in art but as a sympathetic figure at costume balls, and even in political cartoons where he appears as a heroic figure or as Liberty itself in Phrygian cap. In the plays [Manet's friend] Duranty wrote for his puppet theater in the Tuileries in 1863 Polichinelle is the hero. His adversaries are always corrupt and cruel, and he always triumphs over them. Polichinelle came to be identified as a symbol of the crafty perseverance of the 'little' man and his triumph over authority (judge, policeman, doctor, hangman). Manet cannot have been unaware of these attributes, and it seems unlikely that he would have chosen Polichinelle for demeaning political satire (E.M.-S., catalogue entry for Polchinelle, in Beatrice Farwell, The Cult of Images: Baudelaire and the 19th-Century Media Explosion, exh.cat., University of California at Santa Barbara Art Museum, 1977, p. 29).
Similarly, Marilyn Brown has taken issue with the political interpretation of Manet's Polichinelle imagery (M. Brown, "Manet, Nodier, and 'Polichinelle,'" Art Journal, Spring 1985, pp. 43-48). Noting that the 1874 Salon Jury did not find any objection to the watercolor of Polichinelle exhibited by Manet, Brown insists that there was nothing inherently political about the subject. Rather, she observes that Banville's inscription, with its reference to Polichinelle's drunkness, was at odds with the tone of moral sobriety maintained by the government. Brown observes that in the works of the French writer Nodier (circa 1780-1844), Polichinelle appears as an embodiment of modern society and natural man; she argues, therefore, that Manet likewise saw the figure as a kind of persona or alter ego, who represents progress in the face of outmoded convention.
According to Theodore Reff, Manet's friend Edmond Andr was the model who posed for Polichinelle.
(fig. 1) Edouard Manet, Polichinelle, color lithograph, 1874.
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
(fig. 2) Edouard Manet, Le bal de l'opra, 1873.
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
(fig. 3) Edouard Manet, Second fronticepiece for Le cahier de huit eaux-fortes, 1862.
New York Public Library.
(fig. 4) Ernest Meissonier, Polichinelle, circa 1862.
Bibliothque nationale, Paris.
Polichinelle was a figure of exceptional interest for the painter, and in 1873 and 1874, Polichinelle was at the center of Manet's art. During this period, in addition to the present picture, Manet made three other works of the character: a loose, preparatory sketch for the painting in which the figure appears in a more awkward pose; a watercolor exhibited at the Salon of 1874 (Rouart and Wildenstein, no. 212); and a seven-color lithograph based on the watercolor (fig. 1). Polichinelle also appears at the left in the artist's celebrated Le bal de l'opra from 1873-1874 (Rouart and Wildenstein no. 216; fig. 2). Also remarkable is Polichinelle's presence in the second frontispiece of the 1862 portfolio of Manet's etchings (fig. 3). On this basis, it has been suggested that Manet even identified with the character. For example, discussing the print, Jean C. Harris has stated: "It [Polichinelle] also seems a sort of self-portrait; the artist sees himself in the guise of a performer, an entertainer of the common man. Here Manet indicates his scorn for the [academic] 'peintre d'histoire' (J.C. Harris, Edouard Manet, The Graphic Work, San Francisco, 1990, p. 132).
The Pellerin Polichinelle was seen in Manet's studio in December 1873 by Lon Duchemin, who mentioned it in an article he published under the pseudonym Fervacques in Le Figaro:
On the walls hang some of the painter's works. Firstly, the famous Djeuner sur l'herbe rejected by the jury who, foolishly, have failed to understand that it showed, not a nude woman, but a woman undressed, which is something different. Then, paintings exhibited at different period: La leon de musique, Le balcon, La belle Olympia . . . Then, a Marine, a sketch of two women seated in open fields, with a nearby village, a portrait of a woman and an exquisite Polichinelle, in a very jaunty pose.
While we were admiring this painting, so viciously attacked and yet so full of talent, Manet painted a watercolor of another Polichinelle, who poses in the middle of the studio, dressed in his charming and traditional costume. It is enlivened with a delicate, colorful and spiritual touch, different from the usual manner of the painter (quoted D. Rouart and D. Wildenstein, op. cit., vol. I, p. 18).
This extraordinary description is rich with important early information regarding the picture; for example, that Polichinelle's costume was regarded as "charming and traditional," and that in 1873 the painting was already considered "exquisite . . . and full of talent," and yet, like other early works by Manet, had been "viciously attacked."
Manet exhibited his watercolor of Polichinelle at the Salon in 1874; and he sponsored a contest of poetry to accompany a lithograph of the image. The entry by Charles Cros reads:
Il est laid, doublement bossu, canaille, ivrogne,
Il se moque pas mal de l'ordre social,
Des sergents, de la mort au baiser glacial
Et du diable. Pourtant nous l'aimons, car il cogne.
Bossu du nez, bossu du dos, bossu du torse,
Recevant la police grand coup de bton.
Il est trs immoral. Pourquoi l'adore-t-on?
C'est qu'au fond l'homme pur prfre au droit la force.
Sur qui va-t-il taper, Monsieur Polichinelle?
Le guet est trangl, tous les diables ont fui;
Il a mme tu la camarade ternelle . . .
Mais il reste l-bas ce grand louche, l'Ennui.
Manet's friend Thodore de Banville, supplied the winning entry:
Fearsomely pink, eyes glinting with the glare of Hell,
Brazen and drunk--divine--that's him, Polichinelle.
The first edition of the lithograph was to be sent to the 8,000 subscribers of the republican newspaper Le Temps, but the print was surpressed by the authorities; at least 1,500 impressions were destroyed, and the stones were confiscated by the police. The reason for the suppression is a matter of speculation. Theodore Reff has suggested that the figure of Polichinelle bears a striking resemblance to Marchal MacMahon, the reactionary general who had led the repression of the Paris Commune in 1871 and was elected President of the Republic in May 1873 (T. Reff, Manet and Modern Paris, Chicago and London, p. 124). "His stance is indeed that of a general inspecting his troops," Reff writes, "and the bat he holds behind his back may allude to 'Marchal Baton,' MacMahon's nickname, just as the bicorned hat he wears en bataillon may have Napoleonic connotation." Reff also notes that the figure may be based on Meissonier's Polichinelle (fig. 4), exhibited in 1860 and widely circulated as an etching. That Manet served under the reactionary painter in the Franco-Prussian War may add a note of personal irony to this commentary about republicanism and the forces of reaction in politics and culture.
The political reading of the theme, however, has been repeatedly questioned. Concerning the print and the incident over its seizure by the police, another author notes:
If the lithograph was intended as a political caricature, the choice of the character Polichinelle was a puzzling one. Polichinelle was firmly established as a darling of the French people long before the time of this work, not only in art but as a sympathetic figure at costume balls, and even in political cartoons where he appears as a heroic figure or as Liberty itself in Phrygian cap. In the plays [Manet's friend] Duranty wrote for his puppet theater in the Tuileries in 1863 Polichinelle is the hero. His adversaries are always corrupt and cruel, and he always triumphs over them. Polichinelle came to be identified as a symbol of the crafty perseverance of the 'little' man and his triumph over authority (judge, policeman, doctor, hangman). Manet cannot have been unaware of these attributes, and it seems unlikely that he would have chosen Polichinelle for demeaning political satire (E.M.-S., catalogue entry for Polchinelle, in Beatrice Farwell, The Cult of Images: Baudelaire and the 19th-Century Media Explosion, exh.cat., University of California at Santa Barbara Art Museum, 1977, p. 29).
Similarly, Marilyn Brown has taken issue with the political interpretation of Manet's Polichinelle imagery (M. Brown, "Manet, Nodier, and 'Polichinelle,'" Art Journal, Spring 1985, pp. 43-48). Noting that the 1874 Salon Jury did not find any objection to the watercolor of Polichinelle exhibited by Manet, Brown insists that there was nothing inherently political about the subject. Rather, she observes that Banville's inscription, with its reference to Polichinelle's drunkness, was at odds with the tone of moral sobriety maintained by the government. Brown observes that in the works of the French writer Nodier (circa 1780-1844), Polichinelle appears as an embodiment of modern society and natural man; she argues, therefore, that Manet likewise saw the figure as a kind of persona or alter ego, who represents progress in the face of outmoded convention.
According to Theodore Reff, Manet's friend Edmond Andr was the model who posed for Polichinelle.
(fig. 1) Edouard Manet, Polichinelle, color lithograph, 1874.
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
(fig. 2) Edouard Manet, Le bal de l'opra, 1873.
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
(fig. 3) Edouard Manet, Second fronticepiece for Le cahier de huit eaux-fortes, 1862.
New York Public Library.
(fig. 4) Ernest Meissonier, Polichinelle, circa 1862.
Bibliothque nationale, Paris.