Where Degas & Manet Sat in History 

For this catechism I will be referring to two works formed by Edgar degas and Edouard Manet, these works encompass; Manet’s Olympia and Degas’ The Absinthe Drinker (L’Absinthe). These works are significant in view of the fact that they are the artists most famous so it will be the finest representation of where the artists placed themselves in the 19th century of art.

Edgar degas produced a wonderful piece that happened to recieve immense attention relatively rapidly, the piece was called “The Absinthe Drinker (L’absinthe), This artwork was a principled representation of the unfortunate enlargement in social isolation in Paris during its stage of rapid growth. The painting portrays a woman with a glass of Absinthe on the tabletop in front of her, there is also a man that evidently looks like an alcoholic beside her. The main two subjects who are in the foreground are painted as to be degraded and very pale to show the perturbed situation they are in. After the late 90s people started viewing the painting as a warning to the people and the French about absinthe. In general L’Absinthe influenced the works of many artists and is now known as Degas’ most famous and supercalifragilisticexpialidocious masterpiece. This magnificent artwork sunderd the four frames of art which allowed for it to be depicted effortlessly by using two frames which I have chosen; these frames include the Post-Modern Frame and the Cultural Frame. L’Absinthe is seen through the post modern frame as a revolution because of how Paris was falling into social isolation within its stage of growth and development, this artwork is also seen through the cultural frame but in this frame it is seen as a social issue, once again to do with Paris’s social isolation.

Olympia is a masterpiece created by Edouard Manet in 1863 which did not reach any exhibits until the year 1865, Although, when the masterpiece made the exhibit a strange and aggravated reaction was portrayed by the people as they thought that the work was vulgar and immoral. The nude goddess, Olympia, was modeled on Victorine Meurent but Manet made no attempt to idealise Olympia or present her as a figure of Venus, Instead Manet depicted and painted her exactly as he saw her but portrayed her in the role of a prostitute receiving beautiful flowers from one of her clients whole awaiting the next one.

In this period of time, most famous artists used the same representation of women when they were creating their finest works, but Manet painted people for what they were and did not have the need or urge to idealize women he painted in some form that would have relation to the previously known gods that were thought to be perfect in everyway in terms of body proportions, muscle mass, etc.

In conclusion all the artists that were present during this era had a similar idea of woman but they chose to idealized them differently because of the type of message or picture they were trying to convey thus giving the artworks of these men more contrast as they would often be compared side by side to compare and contrast different idealisations of women in this particular era.