Portrait of Monsieur Pertuiset the Lion-Hunter
Portrait of Monsieur Pertuiset the Lion-Hunter | |
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French: Pertuiset, le chasseur de lions | |
Artist | Édouard Manet |
Year | 1881 |
Medium | Oil on canvas |
Dimensions | 171.5 cm × 150.5 cm (67.5 in × 59.3 in) |
Location | São Paulo Art Museum, São Paulo |
Portrait of Monsieur Pertuiset the Lion-Hunter is an 1881 oil-on-canvas portrait painting of the French explorer and adventurer Eugène Pertuiset (1833–1909) by Édouard Manet, now in the São Paulo Art Museum.
Background
Eugène Pertuiset was a celebrated lion hunter who enjoyed considerable media attention and fame during the Second French Empire. In addition to being a big-game hunter, he was an engineer, collector of weapons and paintings, and was commissioned in 1873 by the Republic of Chile to lead an exploration of Tierra del Fuego. After crossing the Strait of Magellan, he made several expeditions into the interior, discovered coal deposits on Dawson Island and obtained a concession to establish a colony, which he intended to populate with settlers from France; however, the Chilean government withdrew from the project.[1] Returning to Paris, he wrote colorful accounts of his adventures.
Pertuiset posed for Manet on the Boulevard de Clichy in 1880, with the monumental portrait completed in 1881. Manet had long been acquainted with Eugène Pertuiset, who had purchased several of his paintings, and had found Pertuiset's half-heroic, half-burlesque character to be amusing. For his part, Pertuiset was also an amateur artist, and in 1884 submitted his own version of the portrait, titled The Lion Hunt, which was exhibited at the new Société des Artistes Indépendants in 1884.
Reception
The work places Pertuiset and a lion's body in a setting of trees with purple shadows, with the lion in the background, partially hidden by trees. Pertuiset, rather than striking a heroic pose as expected by his fans, is depicted on one knee, with a somewhat pensive expression. The setting is of course, imaginary, as Manet had never visited Africa or had witnessed a lion hunt, but the lion pelt may have been modeled after one Pertuiset acquired in a famed 1866 hunt. Manet exhibited Portrait of Monsieur Pertuiset the Lion-Hunter at the Paris Salon in 1881 where it received much condemnation from various critics who disliked its flat style, overuse of violet, and the originality of the pose. However, despite the negative reviews, Manet was awarded a medal for the work, the first official recognition of his career.
See also
References
- ^ "Ilustre Municipalidad de Porvenir". Ilustre Municipalidad de Porvenir.
- Scott Allen, Emily A. Beeny, Gloria Groom: Manet and modern beauty, the artist’s last years. Art Institute of Chicago und J. Paul Getty Museum Los Angeles 2019–2020, J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles 2019, ISBN 978-1-60606-604-1.
- Denis Rouart, Daniel Wildenstein: Edouard Manet: Catalogue raisonné. Bibliothèque des Arts, Paris und Lausanne 1975.
External links
- São Paulo Art Museum home page
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- List of paintings
- The Barque of Dante (1854–1858)
- Christ the Gardener (1856–1859)
- The Absinthe Drinker (1859)
- Spanish Cavaliers (1859)
- Portrait of Madame Brunet (1860)
- Portrait of Monsieur and Madame Manet (1860)
- The Spanish Singer (1860)
- Boy Carrying a Sword (1861)
- La Nymphe surprise (1861)
- The Street Singer (1862)
- Music in the Tuileries (1862)
- The Old Musician (1862)
- Portrait of Victorine Meurent (1862)
- Mademoiselle V. in the Costume of an Espada (1862)
- Little Lange (1862)
- The Luncheon on the Grass (1863)
- La Négresse (1863)
- Olympia (1863)
- Young Man Dressed as a Majo (1863)
- The Dead Man (1864))
- The Bullfight (1864–65)
- The Dead Christ with Angels (1864)
- The Kearsarge at Boulogne (1864)
- The Battle of the Kearsarge and the Alabama (1864)
- The Races at Longchamp (1865)
- Jesus Insulted by the Soldiers (1865)
- Bullfight (1865–66)
- Bullfight – Death of the Bull (1865)
- The Matador Saluting (1866)
- The Fifer (1866)
- A Young Lady in 1866 (1866)
- The Execution of Emperor Maximilian (1867)
- Portrait of Emile Zola (1868)
- Boy Blowing Bubbles (1868)
- Madame Manet at the Piano (1867–68)
- The Balcony (1868)
- Luncheon in the Studio (1868)
- The Reading (1868)
- The Port of Boulogne by Moonlight (1868)
- Departure of the Folkestone Steamer (1869)
- The Brioche (1870)
- Repose (1870)
- The Funeral (1870)
- Effect of Snow on Petit-Montrouge (1870)
- Berthe Morisot with a Bouquet of Violets (1872)
- Tarring a Boat (1873)
- The Railway (1873)
- The Croquet Game (1873)
- Masked Ball at the Opera House (1873)
- Argenteuil (1874)
- Berthe Morisot with a Fan (1874)
- Claude Monet Painting in his Studio (1874)
- Boating (1874)
- Portrait of Marguerite de Conflans (c. 1876)
- Portrait of Stéphane Mallarmé (1876)
- Le Suicidé (1877–1881)
- Nana (1877)
- Plum Brandy (c. 1877)
- The Rue Mosnier Dressed with Flags (1878)
- Blonde Woman with Bare Breasts (c. 1878)
- Chez Tortoni (c. 1878–1880)
- Georges Clemenceau (Fort Worth) (1879)
- Georges Clemenceau (Paris) (1879)
- Chez le Père Lathuille (1879)
- Portrait of Marguerite Gauthier-Lathuille (1879)
- In the Conservatory (1879)
- Madame Manet in the Conservatory (1879)
- The Waitress (1879)
- Corner of a Café-Concert (1879)
- The Café-Concert (1879)
- Self-Portrait with Palette (1879)
- A Bundle of Asparagus (1880)
- A Sprig of Asparagus (1880)
- Portrait of Countess Albazzi (1880)
- Portrait of Monsieur Pertuiset the Lion-Hunter (1881)
- Dead Eagle Owl (1881)
- The Rabbit (1881)
- Rochefort's Escape (1881)
- Spring (1881)
- Autumn (1882)
- A Bar at the Folies-Bergère (1882)
- The House at Rueil (1882)
- Flowers in a Crystal Vase (1882)
- White Lilacs in a Glass Vase (1882)
- A Studio at Les Batignolles (1870 painting)
- Bazille's Studio (1870 painting)
- The Impressionists (2006 series)