Édouard Manet

In the Conservatory

Manet, Lunch on the Grass (1863)

Édouard Manet (pronounced edwaʁ manɛ in French), 23 January 1832 – 30 April 1883, was a French Impressionist painter. He was one of the first painters of the 19th century to paint subjects of everyday life in the modern world. This made him very important for modern painting, especially for the change from Realism to Impressionism.

Some of his paintings were very controversial. The paintings Lunch on the Grass and Olympia were a starting-point for a group of young painters to develop what would later be called Impressionism.