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A bearded man with light skin, wearing a black costume and holding a plumed hat, stands in front of mottled brown background in this vertical portrait painting. His body is angled to our left but he turns to look off to our right from the corners of his dark brown eyes. He has heavy, furrowed brows and high cheekbones. His dark mustache curls up at either end over a full beard, and his wavy chestnut-brown hair is swept back from his forehead. His black jacket has puffed sleeves with narrow ruffles of white at his collar and cuffs, and a peek of the white shirt at his chest where the row of buttons are undone. His puffy pants gather at the thigh over black stockings, and he wears black slippers. He crosses his wrists in front of him, and he wears a gold ring with a square, scarlet-red stone on his right ring finger, to our left. In that hand, he also holds a black hat with a long, feathery plume that falls to knee level. A saber lies on the floor to our left near the man’s feet, with the grip and elaborately twisting guard facing us. The background lightens from coffee brown along the top edge to light beige along the lower edge of the composition. The portrait is loosely painted with visible brushstrokes throughout, especially in the costume and background. The artist signed the painting in the lower right corner, “Manet.”

Edouard Manet

The Tragic Actor (Rouvière as Hamlet), 1866

West Building, Main Floor — Gallery 90

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 187.2 x 108.1 cm (73 11/16 x 42 9/16 in.)

framed: 216.6 x 138.4 cm (85 1/4 x 54 1/2 in.)

Credit Line

Gift of Edith Stuyvesant Gerry

Accession Number

1959.3.1

Artists / Makers

Edouard Manet (artist) French, 1832 - 1883

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
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Inscription

lower right: Manet

Provenance

The artist; purchased January 1872 by (Durand-Ruel et Cie, Paris and New York).[1] Jean-Baptiste Faure [1830-1914], Paris.[2] re-acquired by (Durand-Ruel et Cie, Paris and New York), by December 1878;[3] sold 1898 to George Washington Vanderbilt III [1862-1914], Biltmore, near Asheville, and Washington, D.C.;[4] by inheritance to his wife, Edith Stuyvesant Dresser Vanderbilt Gerry [1873-1958], Providence; bequest 1959 to NGA.

[1] The painting was Durand-Ruel's stock number 953; see e-mail from Juliet Bareau to Betsy Coman, 9 December 2002, in NGA curatorial files. The date of the sale is given as December 1871 in Etienne Moreau-Nélaton, Manet raconté par lui-même, 2 vols., Paris, 1926: 1:130, and Paul Jamot and Georges Wildenstein, Manet, 2 vols., Paris, 1932: 1:89, 132.

[2] The painting is thought to have been acquired from Durand-Ruel by Faure, a celebrated singer and collector, and then sold back to the dealer at a later date. However, there is no record of either transaction. See Jamot and Wildenstein 1932, 1:132, who list Faure as an owner, and Anthea Callen, "Faure and Manet," Gazette des Beaux-arts 83 (March 1974): 171, 178 n. 91.

[3] The painting was Durand-Ruel's stock number 1213; see 2002 e-mail mentioned in note 1.

[4] The 1898 sale date to Vanderbilt is given in the entry for the painting in the exhibition catalogue, Manet en el Prado, Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, 2003. See also Théodore Duret, Histoire d'Édouard Manet et de son oeuvre, Paris, 1902: 212, who places the painting with Vanderbilt.

Associated Names

Durand-Ruel et Cie
Faure, Jean-Baptiste
Gerry, Edith Stuyvesant
Vanderbilt III, George Washington

Exhibition History

1867: Tableaux de Edouard Manet, Avenue de l'Alma, Paris, 1867, no. 18.

1883: Foreign Exhibition, Art Department, Boston, 1883, no. 67.

1895: Exhibition of Paintings by Edouard Manet, Durand-Ruel Galleries, New York, 1895, no. 13.

1915: Loan to display with permanent collection, National Gallery of Art of the Smithsonian Institution's U.S. National Museum, Washington, D.C., 1915-1916 (this National Gallery of Art became the National Collection of Fine Arts, then the National Museum of American Art, then the Smithsonian American Art Museum).

1921: Loan Exhibition of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Paintings, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1921, no. 59.

1924: Exhibition of Paintings: Edouard Manet, Pierre Renoir, Berthe Morisot, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, 1924, no. 10.

1982: Manet and Modern Paris, National Gallery of Art, 1982-1983, no. 27, repro.

1983: Manet, Grand Palais, Paris; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1983, no. 89, repro.

1986: A Magic Mirror: The Portrait in France 1700-1900, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 1986-1987, no. 35, repro.

1998: Loan for display with permanent collection, The Brooklyn Museum of Art, 1998.

1999: Around Impressionism: French Paintings from the National Gallery of Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1999, no catalogue.

1999: Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art, Washington, Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art; Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, 1999, no. 15, repro.

2003: Manet en el Prado, Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, 2003-2004, no.67, repro.

2003: Manet/Velázquez, La manière espagnole au XIXe siècle [Manet/Velázquez, The French Taste for Spanish Painting], Musée d'Orsay, Paris; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2002-2003, no. 92, fig. 32 (Paris cat.), no. 150, fig. 9.56 (New York cat.).

2011: The Tragic Muse: Art and Emotion, 1700-1900, David and Alfred Smart Museum of Art, University of Chicago, 2011, no. 17, fig. 9.

2012: Manet: Portraying Life, Toledo (Ohio) Museum of Art; Royal Academy of Arts, London, 2012-2013, no. 33, repro.

Bibliography

1884: Bazire, Edmond. Manet. PAris, 1884: 46, 48, 115-116

1902: Duret, Theodore. Histoire d'Edouard Manet et de son oeuvre.Paris, 1902:no. 77.

1904: Mauclair, Camille. L'Impressionisme, son histoire, son esthétique, ses maîtres. Paris, 1904: 52, repro.

1910: Duret, Théodore. Manet and the French Impressionists. Translated by J.E. Crawford Flitch. London and Philadelphia, 1910: 33-34, 83-84, 222, no. 77.

1912: Meier-Graefe, Julius. Edouard Manet. Munich, 1912:254, 310

1913: Proust, Antonin. Eduard Manet Paris, 1913: 49

1918: Duret, Theodore. "Les Portraits peints par Manet et refusés par leur modèles," La Renaissance de l'art français I, no. 5 (July 1918):144-152

1919: Duret, Theodore. Histoire de Edouard Manet et de son oeuvre. Paris, 1919:51-52, 130, 151-152, 245.

1923: Waldmann, Emil. Edouard Manet. Berlin, 1923: 19, 72, repro.

1925: Blanche, Jacques-Emile. Manet. New York, 1925: 40-42.

1926: Moreau-Nélaton, Etienne. Manet raconté par lui-même. 2 vols. Paris, 1926: 1:76-77, 79, 132, fig. 86.

1927: Jamot, Paul. "Manet, 'le fifre' et Victoirine Meurend," La Revue de l'art ancien et moderne LI, no. 282 (January 1927):31-41.

1928: Crépet, Eugène. Charles Baudelaire. Paris, 1928:390

1931: Tabarant, Adolphe. Manet: histoire catalographique. Paris, 1931:143-144

1932: Bazin, Germain. "Manet et la tradition," L'Amour de l'art 13, no. 5 (May 1932):160, 167.

1932: Colin, Paul. Edouard Manet. Paris, 1932: 32

1932: Jamot, Paul and Georges Wildenstein. Manet Paris, 1932: 1:34, 132, no. 125.

1939: Venturi, Lionello. Les archives de l'impressionnisme. 2 vols. Paris and New York, 1939: II: 190.

1941: Jedlicka, Gotthard. Edouard Manet. Erlenbach and Zurich, 1941: 88.

1942: Tabarant, Adolphe. La vie artistique au temps de Baudelaire. Paris,1942: 436, 438, 442, 461, 488.

1946: Huth, Hans. "Impressionism Comes to America," Gazette des Beaux-arts XXIX (April 1946): 229.

1947: Florisoone, Michel. Manet. Monaco, 1947: XXI

1947: Tabarant, Adolphe. Manet et ses Oeuvres. Paris, 1947: 103-4, 122-124, 126, 134, 136, 195

1948: Bex, Maurice. Manet. Columbia series. New York, 1948: 12, 41

1954: Hamilton, George Heard. Manet and His Critics. New Haven, 1954: 81, 100, 107, 122, 155, 202, 265, repro 11.

1955: Bataille, Georges. Manet. Translated by Austryn Wainhouse and James Emmons. Lausanne, 1955:10

1959: Hemmings, F.W.J. and Robert Niess, eds. Emile Zola: Salons. Geneva, 1959:17, 98.

1959: Larsen-Roman, Lucy. "Letter from America." Alte und Neue Kunst 10, Heft 4 (1959):25, repro.

1959: Richardson, E. P., ed. "Accessions of American and Canadian Museums, April-June 1959." The Art Quarterly 22, no. 3 (Autumn 1959): 274, repro.

1960: La Chronique des Arts, supplèment à la Gazette des Beaux-arts 1092 (January 1960): 41, repro.

1965: Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 81, as The Tragedian (Rouvière as Hamlet).

1966: Hamilton, Geroge Heard. "Is Manet Still Modern?," Art News Annual XXXI (1966): 105-131, 159-163, repro.

1968: National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 72, repro., The Tragedian (Rouvière as Hamlet).

1970: Orienti, Sandra. The Complete Paintings of Manet. London, 1970: no. 90

1972: Bazin, Germain. Eduard Manet. Milan, 1972: 8, 29, 92-93

1974: Callen, Anthea. "Faure and Manet," Gazette des Beaux-Arts LXXXIII (March 1974):157-178.

1975: Dorival, Bernard. "Quelques sources méconnues de diverse ouvrages de Manet: de la sculpture gothique à la photographie," Bulletin de la Société de l'Histoire de l'art français (1975):321, repro.

1975: European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 210, repro., as The Tragedian (Rouvière as Hamlet).

1975: Mauner, George. Manet: Peintre-Philosophe. University Park and London, 1975: 140, 143-144, 146-147, repro.

1975: Rouart, Denis and Daniel Wildenstein. Edouard Manet, catalogue raisonné 2 vols. Lausanne and Paris, 1975:I:no. 106, repro.

1975: Solkin, David. "Philibert Rouvière: Eduard Manet's 'L'Acteur Tragique,'" The Burlington Magazine CXVII, no. 872 (November 1975):702-709.

1976: Reff, Theodore. "Review of Eduard Manet, Catalogue raisonné by Denis Rouart and Daniel Wildenstein," Art Bulletin (1976): 632+.

1976: Richardson, John. Manet. Oxford, 1976: 12.

1977: Keller, Harald. "Manet als Porträtist," in Festschrift für Otto von Simson. Frankfurt, Berlin and Vienna, 1977: 531+.

1981: Farwell, Beatrice. "Manet and the Nude: A Study in Iconography in the Second Empire." Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Los Angeles, 1973. New York, 1981: 102.

1984: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 449, no. 649, color repro.

1985: European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 243, repro.

1985: Spencer, Robin. "Whistler, Manet, and the Avante-Garde," in Studies in the History of Art 19 (1985): 50, repro.

1987: Spencer, Robin. "Whistler, Manet, and the Tradition of the Avant-Garde." Studies in the History of Art 19 (1987): 50, repro.

1991: Darragon, Eric. Manet. Paris, 1991:10, 140, 159, repro. 89

1991: Wilson-Bareau, Juliet, ed. Manet by Himself: Paintings, Pastels, Prints, and Drawings. London, 1991: 38, fig. 88

1992: Carr-Gomm, Sarah. Manet. London, 1992: 78, repro.

1992: Stevenson, Lesley. Manet. New York, 1992:71, repro.

1992: Wilson-Bareau, Juliet. Manet, The Execution of Maximilian: Painting, Politics and Censorship. London, 1992:35

1993: Perutz, Vivien. Edouard Manet. Lewisburg, London and Toronto, 1993: repro. 18

1994: Rubin, James H. Manet's Silence and the Poetics of Bouquets. Cambridge, 1994: fig. 21.

1994: Swan, Daniel C. "In the Shadow of Cushing," Gilcrease Journal 2 (1994):57, repro.

1996: Roos, Jane Mayo. Early Impressionism and the French State (1866-1874). Cambridge, 1996: 54, 56, fig. 44.

1997: Fernandez, Dominique and Ferrante Ferranti. Le Musée d'Émile Zola: haines et passion, 1997, p. 68, repro.

2001: Bailey, Colin, ed. Gustav Klimt Modernism in the Making. Exh cat. National Gallery of Canada, 2001:83, repro.

2010: Parigi. Gli anni meravigliosi. Exh. cat. Castel Sismondon, Rimini, 2010: 84.