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Lot Essay
Manet first experimented with pastel in Madame Manet en buste, 1873 (Wildenstein, vol. II, no. 2; The Toledo Museum of Art). He turned most frequently to this medium in the years after 1878 until his death in 1883, when declining health made it difficult for him to stand and paint at an easel for any length of time. In contrast to Degas, who revolutionized the pastel medium with his wide-ranging innovations in application and color effects, Manet took a more conservative approach, which recalled the use of pastel in the hands of its great 18th century practitioners, such as Quentin de la Tour and Jean-Baptiste Perroneau. Like them, Manet used the medium mainly for portraiture, and found the use of pastel ideal for capturing the attractive personalities of his female sitters in their stylish, modern attire. As his mastery of this technique grew, he developed his own highly personal and expressive manner, which remained closely attuned to the character and raiment of his subjects, while avoiding the use of virtuosic or extraneous effects for their own sake. His friend Edmond Bazire wrote in 1884:
...His passion was pastels. He did not, in truth, use the colored crayons to perpetuate the dainty tradition of most pastellists. He did not work tightly, and proceeded with broad touches, even brutal on occasion. He brought fire to this gentle technique, one often taken up by young women; pastel did not seem to him necessarily an etiolated medium, he saw it as embracing the whole range of colors which was there to be used. Not because he felt unequal to transitional shades, that is nuances, but because he was eager to infuse life and blood into his figures.
(in T.A. Cronberg, ed., Manet: Retrospective, New York, 1988, p. 242)
In late June 1881, Manet left Paris to spend the summer in Versailles for rest and medical treatment. He returned to his studio on the rue d'Amsterdam in the capital in October, feeling little improved; however, he was excited at the prospect of enjoying the fall season in the bustling shops, cafés and cabarets on the boulevards. During this period, Manet drew pastel portraits of a number of women, as he began to work on on his final masterpiece, Le bar aux Folies-Bergère, 1882 (Wildenstein, vol. I, no. 388; Courtauld Institute, London). Some of his models were close friends while others were merely acquaintances from the arts and other walks of life. He drew Madame Jeanne Martin, the subject of the present pastel, on one other occasion in 1881, in Madame Martin en chapeau noir garni de roses (Wildenstein, vol. II, no. 55), and she is possibly the subject of Femme au chapeau à brides (Wildenstein, vol. II, no. 59). Paul Jamot and George Wildenstein have written:
He rendered all this in fifty pastels which are one of the most charming and original aspects of his work, sometimes with a frankness of touch which nonetheless does not exclude delicacy, sometimes crushing his colored crayons into an intangible powder. Thus he expressed, at one and the same time, both what was in him, and the poetry of his time. No one has done more for the glory of the Parisienne of the 1880s. These young women who distracted him from his suffering and who had nothing to offer him but pleasure, the consolation of pretty outfits, their pretty eyes and their pretty smiles, have been well served. They are immortal.
(in ibid, p. 300).
The first owner of this pastel was Auguste Pellerin (1852-1929), one of the greatest collectors of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art. He was best known for his numerous holdings of Cézanne, whom he began to collect in around 1895, when the artist was virtually unknown to buyers. He owned many masterpieces by Manet as well, including the aforementioned Le bar aux Folies-Bergère, Nana, 1878 (Wildenstein, no. 259; Kunsthalle, Hamburg) and the artist's well-known self portrait, Manet à la palette, circa 1878 (Wildenstein, no. 276; sale, Christie's, New York, 12 May 1997, lot 107).
...His passion was pastels. He did not, in truth, use the colored crayons to perpetuate the dainty tradition of most pastellists. He did not work tightly, and proceeded with broad touches, even brutal on occasion. He brought fire to this gentle technique, one often taken up by young women; pastel did not seem to him necessarily an etiolated medium, he saw it as embracing the whole range of colors which was there to be used. Not because he felt unequal to transitional shades, that is nuances, but because he was eager to infuse life and blood into his figures.
(in T.A. Cronberg, ed., Manet: Retrospective, New York, 1988, p. 242)
In late June 1881, Manet left Paris to spend the summer in Versailles for rest and medical treatment. He returned to his studio on the rue d'Amsterdam in the capital in October, feeling little improved; however, he was excited at the prospect of enjoying the fall season in the bustling shops, cafés and cabarets on the boulevards. During this period, Manet drew pastel portraits of a number of women, as he began to work on on his final masterpiece, Le bar aux Folies-Bergère, 1882 (Wildenstein, vol. I, no. 388; Courtauld Institute, London). Some of his models were close friends while others were merely acquaintances from the arts and other walks of life. He drew Madame Jeanne Martin, the subject of the present pastel, on one other occasion in 1881, in Madame Martin en chapeau noir garni de roses (Wildenstein, vol. II, no. 55), and she is possibly the subject of Femme au chapeau à brides (Wildenstein, vol. II, no. 59). Paul Jamot and George Wildenstein have written:
He rendered all this in fifty pastels which are one of the most charming and original aspects of his work, sometimes with a frankness of touch which nonetheless does not exclude delicacy, sometimes crushing his colored crayons into an intangible powder. Thus he expressed, at one and the same time, both what was in him, and the poetry of his time. No one has done more for the glory of the Parisienne of the 1880s. These young women who distracted him from his suffering and who had nothing to offer him but pleasure, the consolation of pretty outfits, their pretty eyes and their pretty smiles, have been well served. They are immortal.
(in ibid, p. 300).
The first owner of this pastel was Auguste Pellerin (1852-1929), one of the greatest collectors of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art. He was best known for his numerous holdings of Cézanne, whom he began to collect in around 1895, when the artist was virtually unknown to buyers. He owned many masterpieces by Manet as well, including the aforementioned Le bar aux Folies-Bergère, Nana, 1878 (Wildenstein, no. 259; Kunsthalle, Hamburg) and the artist's well-known self portrait, Manet à la palette, circa 1878 (Wildenstein, no. 276; sale, Christie's, New York, 12 May 1997, lot 107).