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Manet’s painting 'Music in the Tuileries Gardens' at first seems to record an everyday scene from modern life – a disorganised crowd listening to an open-air concert. The artist has in fact carefully composed a cultural ‘self-portrait’ as the work contains numerous identifiable sitters, including Manet himself.
This key provides a guide to who’s who, and an insight into Manet’s social world.
Design © Royal Academy of Arts, London / Unlimited 2012.
Edouard Manet, 'Music in the Tuileries Gardens', 1862, Oil on canvas. 76.2 x 118.1 cm. The National Gallery, London. Sir Hugh Lane Bequest, 1917.
1. Edouard Manet (1832–1883) | 2. Champfleury (Jules François Felix Fleury-Husson; 1820–1889) Novelist, critic and prominent supporter of the Realist movement in art and literature. He was an early defender of Manet’s work and the author of a publication about Richard Wagner (1860). | 3. Comte Albert de Balleroy (1828–1872) Painter and engraver who specialised in hunting and genre scenes. Manet shared a studio with de Balleroy at 4 Rue Lavoisier from 1856 to 1859. | 4. Eugène-Cyrille Brunet (1828–1921) Sculptor whom Manet visited in Florence in 1857. Manet had a photograph of Brunet and his wife (see no. 6 below) in his family album of cartes de visite. |
5. Possibly Auguste Manet (1797–1862) Father of Edouard Manet and a senior civil servant in the Ministry of Justice. He became incapacitated in 1857 and died on 25 September 1862. Manet represented both his parents in Portrait of M. and Mme Auguste Manet (1860; Musée d’Orsay, Paris), which was accepted for the Salon of 1861. | 6. Caroline Brunet, née de Pène Wife of the sculptor Eugène-Cyrille Brunet, whom she married in 1861 (see no. 4). Manet painted her portrait in c. 1860–63 (J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles). | 7. Zacharie Astruc (1833–1907) Writer, critic, editor, composer, painter and, later, an acclaimed sculptor. He met Manet between c. 1854/55 and 1857. A passionate Hispanophile, Astruc planned Manet’s visit to Spain in 1865. Manet painted his portrait the following year. | 8. Henri Fantin-Latour (1836–1904) Painter of still-lifes, mythological scenes and group portraits, and enthusiast for the music of Wagner. He met Manet in the Louvre in 1857 and possibly introduced him to the Morisot sisters the following year. Together with Théophile Gautier (see no. 11), Manet and others, he was a founding member of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts in 1861. |
9. Valentine Thérèse Lejosne, née Cazalis-Allut Wife of Commandant Hippolyte Lejosne, a committed Republican and habitué of the Café de Bade, in whose home Manet met Charles Baudelaire (see no. 10) and Frédéric Bazille (see no. 14), a cousin of Hippolyte Lejosne. | 10. Charles Baudelaire (1821–1867) Writer, poet and critic. He was introduced to Manet in the home of Hippolyte Lejosne in 1858 (see no. 9). During the making of Music in the Tuileries Gardens, Manet and Baudelaire spent much time together in the Gardens and at Café Tortoni and Café de Bade on the Boulevard des Italiens. They shared a commitment to creating new art and literature that captured both the ephemeral and eternal aspects of contemporary life. | 11. Théophile Gautier (1811–1872) Writer, poet, journalist, critic of art and literature, Hispanophile and advocate of ‘art for art’s sake’. He probably met Manet by 1861 and was one of the first critics to support his work at that year’s Salon. In the same year he was also a co-founder, with Fantin-Latour (see no. 8), Manet and others, of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts. | 12. Baron Isidore Justin Séverin Taylor (1789–1879) Administrator for the dramatic and fine arts. In 1835 he was charged with building King Louis-Philippe’s collection of Spanish art, which opened in the Louvre as the galerie espagnole in 1838. He also published guidebooks to France, Spain and Portugal, and the Middle East, contributing to the contemporary enthusiasm for picturesque travel. |
13. Marianne Offenbach, née Rindskopf Wife of the musician and composer Jacques Offenbach (see no. 19). | 14. Frédéric Bazille (1841–1870) Painter, student of Charles Gleyre, close friend of Monet, Renoir and Sisley, and associate and admirer of Manet. He met Manet at the home of Hippolyte Lejosne in 1863 (see no. 9). He was killed in action during the Franco-Prussian War (1870–71). | 15. Possibly Suzanne Manet, née Leenhoff (1829–1906) Wife of Manet. A gifted pianist of Dutch origin, Suzanne entered the Manet household in c. 1849 as piano teacher to Manet’s two younger brothers (see no. 18). She gave birth to Léon Koëlla Leenhoff in 1852 (see no. 16) and married Manet in 1863. She was the most frequently depicted of Manet’s female subjects. | 16. Léon Koëlla Leenhoff (1852–1927) Illegitimate son of Suzanne Leenhoff (see no. 15) who lived with the Manets. His paternity remains uncertain. He was represented seventeen times by Manet during the 1860s and 1870s, and played a significant role in the management of Manet’s estate after the artist’s death. |
17. Eugénie-Désirée Manet, née Fournier (1811–1895) Mother of Manet. She posed for Manet in formal portraits and a genre scene, The Swallows, and held a cultured salon on Tuesdays in the Manet family apartment. She was widowed in September 1862 (see no. 5). | 18. Eugène Manet (1833–1892) Manet’s younger brother. He married the artist Berthe Morisot (Manet’s unofficial student) in 1874. | 19. Jacques Offenbach (1819–1880) Cellist, composer and producer of some 100 operettas, including Orpheus in the Underworld, and the unfinished opera The Tales of Hoffman. His work combined a facility for melody and risqué humour, and brought him international success. | 20. Charles Monginot (1825–1900) Painter of portraits, still-lifes, animals and genre scenes who trained with Manet’s teacher Thomas Couture and made his debut at the Salon of 1850. |
