Manet's Modernism

or, The Face of Painting in the 1860s

Fried Michael

"Manet's Modernism" is the culminating work in a trilogy of books by Michael Fried exploring the roots and genesis of pictorial modernism. Fried provides an entirely new understanding not only of the art of Manet and his generation but also of the way in which the Impressionist simplification of Manet's achievement had determined subsequent accounts of pictorial modernism down to the present. Like Fried's previous books,"Manet's Modernism" is a milestone in the historiography of modern art.

Contents:

List of Illustrations
Preface
Introduction: Manet before Impressionism
1: Manet's Sources, 1859-1869
2: "Manet's Sources" Reconsidered
3: The Generation of 1863
4: Manet in His Generation
5: Between Realisms
Coda: Manet's Modernism
Appendix 1. Antonin Proust, "L'Art d'Edouard Manet" (1901)
Appendix 2. Edmond Duranty, "Ceux qui seront les peintres" (1867)
Appendix 3. Le Capitaine Pompilius [Carle Desnoyers], remarks on Manet (1863) Appendix 4. Zacharie Astruc, remarks on Manet (1863)
Notes
Credits
Index

About the Author

Michael Fried is the J. R. Herbert Boone Professor of Humanities at The Johns Hopkins University. He is the author of two previous books of poems, "Powers and To the Center of the Earth", as well as numerous works in art history and criticism, including "Art and Objecthood" and "Manet's Modernism", both published by the University of Chicago Press. In the spring of 2002 he gave the A. W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts at the National Gallery of Art.

Reviews

"Beautifully produced... [Fried's] thought is always stimulating, if not provocative. This is an important book, which all students of modernism, in the broadest sense, will find rewarding" – Virginia Quarterly Review

"An astonishing piece of scholarship that will cause readers to rethink their understanding of Manet's influence, ambition, and achievement" – Gary Michael, Bloomsbury Review

"An audaciously brilliant book, long awaited and as essential reading for philosophers as for art historians" – Wayne Andersen, Common Knowledge

"Art history of the highest originality and distinction" – Arthur C. Danto, New York Times Book Review

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