Carolus-Duran (Charles-Auguste-Émile Durand)

Carolus-Duran captured this likeness of fellow artist Édouard Manet on a summer day in a garden outside of Paris. Adopting Manet’s loose technique, he rendered the portrait with broad strokes, portraying his friend at ease, slightly flushed and wearing a straw boater hat pushed back on his forehead. He later depicted Manet wearing a bowler hat, in a sketch now owned by the Musée d’Orsay in Paris. 

Recalling these pictures, Manet wrote, “A while back you painted two portrait heads of me. I would love to own at least one of them.  You would be terribly kind if you were to send it to me.” 

Carolus-Duran replied, “The studies that I made of your head are still at the country house. As soon as I am able to get there again I will bring back the better of the two and I will send it to you immediately.” 

It seems likely that the painting on view here is the version Carolus-Duran offered his friend. 

Carolus-Duran, a successful society portraitist, painted this informal view of his friend Édouard Manet at a villa outside of Paris. Manet was known for his impeccable grooming, but Carolus-Duran portrays him in a moment of ease, flushed by the effects of a warm afternoon, wearing a straw boater pushed back on his forehead. Working quickly, he captures Manet’s appearance and mood with broad, summary strokes, painting him “à la Manet”-employing his friend’s loose brushwork rather than his own tighter style.