La Nymphe surprise, or Surprised Nymph, is a painting by the French painter Édouard Manet, created in 1861. The model was Suzanne Leenhoff, a pianist whom he married two years later. The painting is a key work of Manet's, marking the beginning of a new period in his artistic career and generally in the history of modernism in French painting. It is in National Museum of Fine Arts in Buenos Aires[1] and is considered one of the collection's highlights. La Nymphe surprise remained in the artist's possession his entire life, and there is evidence that, apart from the emotional significance it had for him, Manet considered this painting one of his most important.[2][3][4]
| La Nymphe surprise (Surprised Nymph) | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Artist | Édouard Manet |
| Year | 1861 |
| Medium | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 122 cm × 144 cm (48 in × 57 in) |
| Location | National Museum of Fine Arts in Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires |
History
editThe model of the painting is Édouard Manet's lover, the Dutchwoman Suzanne Leenhoff, with whom he had a secret affair. This affair developed while the young Manet was still living in his parents' house, where Suzanne—who was three years Manet's senior—was engaged in 1849 as a piano teacher for Édouard and his brother Eugène.[5][6] Their relationship was kept secret from his family. Manet and Suzanne married in 1863,[7] the year after Manet's father died and two years after the completion of this painting.[1] They remained married until Manet's death in 1883.[8]
Nymphs were female spirits of nature, female deities from Greek mythology, often depicted as young women, who dwell in mountains and small woods, by springs and rivers.[9] Several authors think that the motif is similar to Rembrandt's Susanna and the Elders, considering that the model's name is Suzanne, she was Dutch and the figure's pose is identical with the one in the painting. In a different point, Françoise Cachin argues that Manet was probably inspired by Jean-Baptiste Santerre's 1704 painting of the same subject, pointing out the position of the arm and the treatment of the material.[10]
Manet kept this painting in his atelier. The painting was exhibited at the Salon des Artistes Français in 1865.[2] This painting was painted two years before the Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe (The Luncheon on the Grass) and Olympia.[11] The painting was purchased by the National Museum of Fine Arts in Buenos Aires and was placed on display at the Museum, as one of the institution's highlights.[12]
Painting
editManet's La Nymphe surprise depicts a young woman sitting in a wooded landscape beside a lake, looking surprised at the viewer. There is a blue iris growing near her left foot, and she wears nothing on her body except white pearls around her neck and a ring on her little finger. The nymph's glance, contrary to Olympia's provocative look, is surprised and shy, as if she has found the viewer watching her, invading her privacy, disturbing her.[12][13]
See also
edit- List of paintings by Édouard Manet
- 1861 in art
- Boy Carrying a Sword, depicting Suzanne's son Leon Leenhoff
- The Reading
- Luncheon in the Studio
- Impressionism
- Nana
References
edit- ^ a b "La Nymphe surprise". Google Cultural Institute. Retrieved 20 February 2015.
- ^ a b "the-collection-highlights". www.mnba.gob.ar. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016.
- ^ Willard Huntington Wright (1928). Modern Painting, Its Tendency and Meaning. Library of Alexandria. p. [page needed]. ISBN 9781465543585.
- ^ Willard Huntington Wright (1928). "Modern Painting, Its Tendency and Meaning". p. [page needed].
- ^ Manet, Édouard, Mary Anne Stevens, and Lawrence W. Nichols. Manet: Portraying Life. Toledo: Toledo Museum of Art, 2012, p. 164. ISBN 9781907533532
- ^ Pullins, David. Manet: Three Paintings from the Norton Simon Museum. New York: The Frick Collection, 2019, p. 65.
- ^ Manet, Édouard, Mary Anne Stevens, and Lawrence W. Nichols. Manet: Portraying Life. Toledo: Toledo Museum of Art, 2012, p. 167. ISBN 9781907533532
- ^ Davies, Serena (18 January 2015). "Did Manet have a secret son?". Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 20 February 2015.
- ^ "Nymph". www.theoi.com. Retrieved 20 February 2015.
- ^ Cachin, Françoise (1991). Manet. Translated from the French by Emily Read. New York: H. Holt and Co. pp. 32–33. ISBN 0-8050-1793-3. OCLC 1194438530 – via the Internet Archive.
- ^ "Impressionnisme Édouard Manet". www.aparences.net. 17 September 2014. Retrieved 20 February 2015.
- ^ a b Farwell, Beatrice (April 1975). "Manet's 'Nymphe Surprise'". The Burlington Magazine. 117 (865). The Burlington Magazine Publications Ltd.: 224–227, 229. JSTOR 877979.
- ^ Rottenberg, Silvia (26 November 2014). "History's roving eye turns to the femme fatale". Buenos Aires Herald. Archived from the original on 20 February 2015. Retrieved 20 February 2015.