Focus on Self-Portrait with Palette (Manet) and explore the Origin and meaning.
As has been established by X-ray analysis, Manet painted his Self-Portrait with Palette over a portrait in profile of his wife Suzanne Manet. In this picture she was depicted in a pose similar to that in the painting Madame Manet at the Piano (1868, Musée d'Orsay).
The dating of the painting goes back to Manet's friend Théodore Duret, who asked Léon Leenhof, the son of Manet's wife, about it after the painter's death. Moreover, Manet had used the same suit jacket that he wore in Self-Portrait with Palette in the painting At "Père Lathuille" (also from 1879), for the depiction of the son of the restaurant's owner.
Las Meninas, in which Diego Velázquez depicted himself in a similar pose with brush and palette, is considered an important precedent for the Self-Portrait with Palette. There the painter stands almost in the background of his studio, while his models, the five-year-old Margarita Teresa of Spain and her servants, occupy the foreground. From here Manet appropriated the pose of the painter and his equipment, but as opposed to Velázquez, he makes himself the thematic center of the image. At the same time, however, he is working on a painting, but leaves its subject matter, as well as his surroundings, to the imagination of the viewer. Manet himself between 1865 and 1870 portrayed Velázquez in a studio scene in which the Spanish painter is posed similarly to his self-portrait.
As a practical matter painters did not and do not wear formal dress while working, as it could far too easily be ruined by oil paint. Manet's depiction of himself as a painter in stylish city-going clothes has various precedents. Already Velázquez had shown himself in costly garb that would be appropriate for a courtier. In 1870 Manet had sat for the painter Henri Fantin-Latour in the painting Un atelier aux Batignolles while similarly well-dressed. His wearing of a hat indoors also has a direct precedent. Renoir had depicted Monet in 1875, with suit, hat and all. Just as Velázquez had used his clothes to underscore his proximity to the Spanish court, Manet's clothing shows his role as a stylish and successful Parisian artist, "who not only in his artistic posture, but also in his appearance is quintessentially the painter of modern life, of Baudelaire's description."The unfinished right hand with the paintbrush is conspicuous in the painting. Victor Stoichiţă perceives this as Manet's intention and interprets it thusly: "because it is an act of painting that is depicted here, it turns painting around itself like a whirlwind" Françoise Cachin explains it as a way of concentrating the light and the attention of the viewer upon the more important aspects of the painting. Manet's wife Suzanne, however, described this painting and the Self-Portrait with Cap (1878–79) as sketches.
Suzanne Manet Françoise Cachin Henri Fantin-Latour whirlwind Monet Théodore Duret Margarita Teresa of Spain Las Meninas Renoir Velázquez Madame Manet at the Piano Diego Velázquez Un atelier aux Batignolles painter of modern life