Мане Эдуард - Портрет Жоржа Клемансо 1879
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Портрет Жоржа Клемансо 1879
94x74см холст/масло
Museum d'Orsay, Paris, France
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From Museum d'Orsay, Paris:
"Manet's portrait of me? Terrible, I do not have it and do not feel the worse for it. It is in the Louvre, and I wonder why it was put there". These final comments on the painting were made late in Clemenceau's life. However, of all the portraits of Clemenceau, few radiate such strength and assurance.
Finding it difficult to get his model to pose, Manet probably used a photograph, no doubt the one taken by Wilhem Benque dating from 1876 in which the politician is depicted standing with his arms similarly folded. The painter may well have also used a small photo of Clemenceau's head from an album belonging to the Manet family now kept in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France.
Here the artist captures in paint all the allusive qualities of his pen and ink drawings and paintings from this time. With a few Japanese-style dashes and outlines, he succeeds in expressing all the energy, determination, steeliness and the humour of Clemenceau.