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A pale-skinned young man with a carrot-red beard and hair faces us, straddling a green chair in a sunny outdoor setting in this vertical painting. The scene is loosely painted so his features are indistinct. His eyes are painted as pale blue dots, and he looks out at us. His chair unfolds into an X shape, with interlacing slats to make the seat. He leans forward to rest his hands on one side of the chair, and his legs are spread wide. He wears a marine-blue jacket over a white shirt, sage-green trousers streaked with gray, and black shoes. A soft blue V-shape at the neck suggests a neckerchief. Behind him, a half wall is topped by a trellis. The wall is painted in muted tones of pale laurel green while the trellis is painted with crisscrossed strokes of pine green. Daubs of emerald, pine, and forest green suggest vines and leaves, and flicks of orange, gold, and blue could be flowers. The ground beneath the man is pale peach scattered with thin scribbles and patches of fog blue. The painting is inscribed with “E 72.” in the lower right.

Edouard Manet

George Moore in the Artist's Garden, c. 1879

West Building, Main Floor — Gallery 87

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 54.6 x 45.1 cm (21 1/2 x 17 3/4 in.)

framed: 78.11 × 68.26 × 10.8 cm (30 3/4 × 26 7/8 × 4 1/4 in.)

Credit Line

Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon

Accession Number

2006.128.24

Artists / Makers

Edouard Manet (painter) French, 1832 - 1883

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
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Inscription

lower right, atelier stamp in red: E.M

Provenance

The artist; (his estate sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 4-5 February 1884, no. 59); (Portier, Paris). (Durand-Ruel et Cie, Paris and New York), c. 1900. (Paul Cassirer, Berlin). Max Liebermann [1847-1935], Berlin, by 1904;[1] by inheritance to his daughter, Mrs. Kurt Riezler [née Käthe Liebermann, 1885-1952], Berlin and later New York, until at least 1949.[2] (Wildenstein and Co., New York). Paul Mellon [1907-1999], Upperville, Virginia, by 1966;[3] bequest 1999 to NGA, with life interest to Mrs. Mellon; life interest released 2006.

[1] The early provenance is according to Denis Rouart and Daniel Wildenstein, Edouard Manet: Catalogue raisonné, 2 vols., Lausanne and Paris, 1975: I:no. 297, repro. The painting was number 488 in the inventory taken of the artist's possessions after his death in 1883. Published as in Liebermann's collection in Ferdinand Laban, "Im Zwanzigsten Jahre nach Manets Tode." Zeitschrift für bildende Kunst (1904): repro. 35.

[2] This painting was among 14 from Liebermann's collection that were sent to the Kunsthaus Zürich in May 1933 and later released to his daughter Käthe Riezler. (See Walther Feilchenfeldt’s letter to Dr. Wartmann of 2 May 1933 published in Max Liebermann und die französischen Impressionisten, Düsseldorf, 1997: 239; "In the list of pictures that Max Liebermann is leaving in Zurich for safe keeping is “6. [Manet,] George Moore.”) The Riezlers left Europe for New York in 1938. The painting was lent by them to a 1948 exhibition at Wildenstein, New York, and again to an exhibition of their collection in San Francisco in 1949. See Karl-Heinz Janda and Annegret Janda, "Max Liebermann als Kunstsammler" in Forschungen und Berichte 15 (1973): 103-149.

[3] Included in a 1966 exhibition of of the Mellon collection at the NGA.

Associated Names

Durand-Ruel et Cie
Liebermann, Max
Mellon, Paul
Riezler, Kurt Mrs.
Wildenstein & Co., Inc.

Exhibition History

1948: A Loan Exhibition of Manet for the Benefit of the New York Infirmary, Wildenstein, New York, 1948, no. 28, repro.

1949: 19th Century French Paintings from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Kurt Riezler, New York, M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco, 1949, no catalogue.

1966: French Paintings from the Collections of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon and Mrs. Mellon Bruce. Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Exhibition 1941-1966, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1966, no. 43, repro.

2012: Manet: Portraying Life, Toledo (Ohio) Museum of Art; Royal Academy of Arts, London, 2012-2013, no. 32, repro.

2013: Intimate Impressionism from the National Gallery of Art, Museo dell'Ara Pacis Augustae, Rome (exhibition title in this venue: Impressionist Gems); California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco; McNay Art Museum, San Antonio; Mitsubishi Ichigokan Museum, Tokyo, Seattle Art Museum, 2013-2016.

Bibliography

1902: Duret, Théodore. Histoire d'Edouard Manet et de son oeuvre.Paris, 1902: no.246.

1904: Laban, Ferdinand. "Im Zwanzigsten Jahre nach Manets Tode." Zeitschrift für bildende Kunst (1904): repro. 35.

1910: Duret, Théodore. Manet and the French Impressionists. Translated by J.E. Crawford Flitch. London and Philadelphia, 1910: 249, no. 246.

1910: Hancke, Erich. "Manet als Porträtmaler." Kunst und Künstler (February 1910): 148.

1912: Meier-Graefe, Julius. Edouard Manet. Munich, 1912:: 272, repro.

1926: Moreau-Nélaton, Etienne. Manet, raconté par lui-même. 2 vols. Paris, 1926: II: 54, repro fig. 237.

1931: Tabarant, Adolphe. Manet: histoire catalographique. Paris, 1931: no. 306.

1932: Jamot, Paul, and Georges Wildenstein. Manet. 2 vols. Paris, 1932: 1:no. 338; 2: fig. 201.

1938: Rey, Robert. Manet. New York and Paris, 1938:40, repro.

1940: André, Albert. Edouard Manet. Paris, c. 1940: repro. 49.

1947: Tabarant, Adolphe. Manet et ses oeuvres. Paris, 1947:360, no. 325, repro.

1958: Martin, Kurt. Edouard Manet. Stuttgart, 1958: under no. 21.

1966: Goldwater, Robert. "The Glory that was France." Art News 65 (March 1966): 42, repro. 43.

1966: Neugass, Fritz. "Jubiläumsschau in der National-Galerie in Washington." Weltkunst XXXVI, no. 8 (15 April 1966): 336, repro.

1966: Young, Mahonri Sharp. "The Mellon Collections: The Great Years of French Painting." Apollo 83 (June 1966): 427-428, repro.

1968: Bodelsen, Merete. "Early Impressionist Sales 1874-94 in the light of some unpublished 'procès-verbaux'." The Burlington Magazine 110 (June 1968): 242, no. 59.

1970: Orienti, Sandra and Denis Rouart. Edouard Manet. Paris, 1970: no. 278a, repro.

1973: Janda, Karl-Heinz and Annegret Janda. "Max Liebermann als Kunstsammler." Forschungen und Berichte 15 (1973): 103-149.

1975: Rouart, Denis and Daniel Wildenstein. Manet: catalogue raisonné. 2 vols. Lausanne and Paris, 1975: I:no. 297, repro.

1991: Kopper, Philip. America's National Gallery of Art: A Gift to the Nation. New York, 1991: 277.

1997: Natter, G. Tobias and Julius H. Schoeps, intro. Max Liebermann und die französischen Impressionisten. Published in conjuction with exhibition at the Jüdisches Museum, Vienna. Düsseldorf, 1997: 214-215, repro., 239-240.