Madame Manet at the Piano (1867-1868) by Édouard Manet

Madame Manet at the Piano is a portrait by Édouard Manet of his wife Suzanne (née Leenhoff), produced in 1867-68 and now in the Musée d'Orsay in Paris.^[1] It highlights her talent on the piano, having played Wagner to Baudelaire during his last days.^[2]

Presentation

Before the advent of the radio and the gramophone, musicians played their own pieces using sheet music. The piano in particular was a particularly popular instrument for this. It is estimated that around 1860 there were about 20,000 piano teachers active in Paris. In 1849 Manet's father appointed Suzanne Leenhoff as piano teacher for his sons. She was a gifted interpreter of composers such as Schumann and Wagner. When the poet Charles Baudelaire suffered a stroke in 1866 and ended up in a Paris hospital, she offered him a distraction by playing Wagner. A love affair developed between Leenhoff and Manet, which would eventually be sealed with a marriage in 1863.^[3]

In 1868 Edgar Degas had made a painting of the Manet couple with Suzanne at the piano and her husband listening on the couch. Degas gave the canvas to Manet as a present. However, the latter was so dissatisfied with the way his wife had been portrayed that he cut off part of the canvas. Then he painted his own version. Suzanne Manet wears a black dress on this. Manet chose a relatively high vantage point for this painting so that her hands are clearly visible. In the top right corner a small still life is visible in the mirror, including a clock and a pair of candlesticks, lending depth and vibrancy to the flat background.

See also

• List of paintings by Édouard Manet

References