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Home>Calendar>Talks>Focus: Exhibitions>Hybrid Talk—Edouard Manet and Émile Zola: A Portrait of Friendship
To our left, a young woman sits facing us on a low stone wall at the base of the vertical, black bars of an iron fence and a young girl stands facing away from us to our right in this horizontal painting. Both have pale skin. The woman looks directly at us with dark eyes as she holds an open book, a closed red fan, and a sleeping brown and white puppy in her lap. Her long auburn hair falls down over her shoulders. Her navy-blue dress is accented with white piping on the skirt, collar, and sleeves, and has three large, white buttons down the front and her black hat is adorned with two red poppies and a daisy. The girl wears a sleeveless white, knee-length dress belted with a marine-blue sash tied in a large bow at her back. The girl’s blond hair is pulled up and tied with a black ribbon. She raises her left hand to grasp the bar of the fence she faces. A bunch of green grapes lies on the low wall to our right. A plume of steam fills much of the space beyond the black fence, which spans the width of the painting and extends off the top edge. A few details can be made out beyond the fence, including a stone-gray building with two wooden doors to our left and a bridge along the right edge.

Edouard Manet, The Railway, 1873, oil on canvas, Gift of Horace Havemeyer in memory of his mother, Louisine W. Havemeyer, 1956.10.1

Edouard Manet and Émile Zola: A Portrait of Friendship

Focus: Exhibitions

  • Sunday, November 3, 2024
  • 12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m.
  • East Building Large Auditorium
  • Talks
  • Hybrid
  • Registration Required
Register Now

An influential painter for the impressionists, Edouard Manet (1832-1883) was also a sensitive and serious literature student. Among his friends was the naturalist and novelist Émile Zola. They were kindred spirits, confronting the realities of their times and producing art relevant for the modern age. Learn about how their revolutionary creative sensibility inspired 20th-century artists and writers to come.

Presented by senior lecturer David Gariff in honor of the exhibition Paris 1874: The Impressionist Moment.

This hybrid lecture is offered in person and virtually. All registrants will receive a recording after the event.