Ball at The Opera by Carol Sutton

Specific Historically Based PaintingsŠ by Carol Sutton

Ball at The Opera by Carol Sutton Š

(1987) Ball at The Opera by Carol Sutton

VERSION #1

Size: 90 inches by 107 inches, It was painted unstretched. And is now still unstreached and unframed.

The painting has never been stretched or framed and is rolled up in the artist studio.

Inventory #87/01/15 to 19

Date: January 15 to 19, 1987, the second painting made that year. Painted before the BarcelonaTriangleWorkshop in Barcelona, Spain

Materials: Golden Acrylic on cotton canvas

Sources: Manet painting titled: Ball at the Opera

Provenance: Collection: of the artist

Web provenance: none

Photo credit: BLANK PHOTOŠ by Carol Sutton

Notes: This is VERSION # 1. of two that I paintings that I made on Manet's Ball at the Opera. The second VERSION # 2 is longer by about 3 feet. It is titled:

GRAND BALL AT THE OPERA ( Long ) , size: 87 1/2 " x 149", or 7 feet 3 1/2 inches by 12 feet 5 inches. Date: Apirl 3 to 11, 1998. Inventory # 90/04/03 to 11.

DETAILS

DETAIL 1.of Carol Sutton's The Ball at The Opera.

subliminal saxaphone player, dangling legs DETAIL from Ball at the Opera, painting by Carol Sutton, after ManetŠ

subliminal saxaphone like player, dangling legs of the lady in the balcony, post with light escutcheon, detail of right upper portion of painting.

Photo credit: BLANK PHOTOŠ by Carol Sutton

link:

MYSTUDIOS.COM MANET LEGS in MANET's

via http://www.mystudios.com/manet/paint.html:

Allows for:

Mouse Over the image for 7 detail views

Masked Ball at the Opera (detail)

1873

oil on canvas 59x72cm

National Art Gallery, DC

legs Manet, Ball at the Opera, via mystudios.com

DETAIL 2.of Carol Sutton's The Ball at The Opera.

Photo credit: BLANK PHOTOŠ by Carol Sutton

Escutcheon on post, and crowd below

DETAIL 3 .of Carol Sutton's The Ball at The Opera.

Photo credit: BLANK PHOTOŠ by Carol Sutton

Halequin costumed figure, with ladies, a DETAIL, Ball at The Opera (1987) after Manet, by Carol Sutton Š

Halequin costumed figure, with ladies , one whom has stripped blue and white hose, detail from lower left side of painting.

These Halequin figures are also called : Pierrette or débardeuxe , or [" stevedorette" } notes via page 349 in Manet/book by The Metropolitan Museum of Art/ Abrams.

DETAIL 4 .of Carol Sutton's The Ball at The Opera.

Photo credit: BLANK PHOTOŠ by Carol Sutton

Floral circular bouquet of flowers DETAIL, Ball at The Opera (1987) after Manet, by Carol Sutton Š

Floral circular bouquet of flowers, with clusters of men dressed in formal black dress with white collars and shirts. Detail central portion of painting.

Photo credit: BLANK PHOTOŠ by Carol Sutton

& COMPARISION

FLORAL in MANET's via MYSTUDIOS.COM MANET

http://www.mystudios.com/manet/1870/opera/flowers.html

Allows for:

Mouse Over the image for 7 detail views

Masked Ball at the Opera (detail)

1873

oil on canvas 59x72cm

National Art Gallery, DC

SEE MORE ON MANET's FLORAL BOUQUETS BELOW:

One Source of Inspiration: Manet painting titled: BALL AT THE OPERA

Edouard Manet. The Masked Ball at the Opera. c.1873-1874. Oil on canvas. The National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, USA.

Edouard Manet. The Masked Ball at the Opera. c.1873-1874. Oil on canvas. The National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, USA.

Masked Ball at the Opera (detail)

or as Manet himself titled it:

'Bal masqué a l' Opera" ( as per his account book )

1873

oil on canvas 59x72cm; also listed as 23 1/2" x 28 3/4" or ( 60cm x 73 cm)

Signed: yes in lower right, on dance program: Manet

National Art Gallery, Washington, DC

Provenance of Exhibitions: First shown in Beaux-Arts 1884, as number 69 in Paris, France. shown in New York, Shown by dealer Durand-Ruel 1895, as no. 29, and in Washington , District of Columbia, 1982-1983, , no. 39.

Purchased by Maurice FAURE, on November 18, 1873. Faure paid 6,000 Frs for the work. Five years later Faure tried to sell this painting in 1878; but remained unsold. So Faure still owned it at the time of the posthumous Manet exhibition of 1884. But in 1894, ten years later, Faure did sell it to dealer, Durand-Ruel. Durand-Ruel in turn sold it to one of the greatest female art collectors of the 19th and early 20th century, Mrs. H. O. Havemeyer. The Havemayer family kept the work of nearly a centruy, until 1992, when Mrs. Havemeyer's heirs gave it to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. ( notes on this from page 352 under section: 'Provenance' by F.C. who is Francoise Cachin.

[ 1884-2 shows: After the death of Manet on April 30, 1883 and buried on May 3, 1883 in Passy Cemetery, Paris)

1. January 6-28- Paris, Ecloe Nationale des beaux-Arts, Exposition des Oeuveres d'Edouard Manet

2. February 2-3 Paris, Hotel Drouet, Succession Edouard Manet ( presale exhibition for auction)]

Every year in mid-Lent, the Opera held its famous 'Masked Ball', which was followed ten days later by a second ball, called the 'Bal des Artistes'. Filled with beautiful show girls of Paris and gentlemen in formal dress. It is said that Manet attended the ball, where he made sketches, and was inspired by the Masked Ball and concieved of the painting. The painting was executed over a period of serveral months.

This painting was based on the Opera while it was in the location of the rue Le Peletier as the present Opera was still under construction. Quote: " Manet chose a part of the building tthat affored him his accustomed strictly horizontal compositon, under a balcony extending the lenght of the painting: " The scene is not the hall, where the dancing was, but the promenade behind the boxes. " ( footnote #3, which is Duret, 1902, page 88. )

Notes: by Francoise Cashin on pages 349, 350, 351, 352, , ia page 349 in Manet/book by The Metropolitan Museum of Art/ Abrams. Includes a black and white detail of El Greco: Burial of the Conde de Orgaz, from Santo Tomé, Toledo, Spain.

**Manet's own possible source of Inspiration: El Greco**

**Manet** painting titled: BALL AT THE OPERA

What were Manet's own historic painted sources or inspiration

for this painting, other than the actual scene itself?
Burial of Count Orgaz Text on page 353 of this same book has: QUOTE: "Leiris has seen a possible iconographic source in the celebrated Burial of the Conde de Orgaz by El Greco ( figure a), which Manet had seen with Duret at Toledo in the summer of 1865 (footnote # 13- Leiris, 1980, pages 95-96, and page 99). image credit: http://images.google.ca/images?hl=en&lr=&q=Burial+of+the+Orgaz-Greco&btnG=Search to http://www.biblical-art.com/biblicalsubject.asp?id_biblicalsubject=803&pagenum=1
	Eugene Giraud (1806-1881) The Ball at the Opera. 1861 Wood engraving. Paris, Bibliotheque National, Cabinet des estampes. "One of the many illustrations of the masked balls to be found in popular magazine and newspapers, this example has a close compostioanl affinity to Manet's painting. " page 160, from Chapter: A COMPLETE VISION OF CONTEMPORARY LIFE'; book Manet, by Kathleen Adler.
	Alfred Grevin The ball of the Opera Wood engraving from Petit Journal pour rire, no 176, (1873), 1. Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, France. illustrated on page 122, Chapter: THE THEATER AND THE OPERA, book by Theodore Reff.

I have used extensive information from Francoise Cachin's book on Edouard Manet to write the text below. Here is the book information data:

Book INFORMATION:
(Manet, Edouard: 1832-1883) Cachin, Françoise, intro. (Edouard) MANET: 1832-1883.

NY: Abrams / Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1983, 11.5 x 9 in., 547 pp. with 461 illustrations, 138 in color; clothbound in dust jacket; as new. Catalog of the major retrospective exhibition of Edouard Manet, held at the Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, Paris and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
http://www.abaa.org/

then search word: MANET

QUOTE: "Masked Ball at the Opera -In this painting Manet depicts the Opera on the rue le Peletier

Print of Opera on the rue le Peletier, Paris, France,(Manet),http://www.hberlioz.com/Paris/BPOpera.html

[VIEW: both: and Another view of the Opéra before its destruction by fire(We are most grateful to M. Laurent Ludart who sent us this picture. ) ;This engraving dates from 1861 and is in our own collection. The Opéra before it burnt down in 1873 ;The Opéra on fire - 29 October 1873 -all at this URL: http://www.hberlioz.com/Paris/BPOpera.html]

which was destroyed by fire while he was still working on it. All classes of society attended the opera and sat according to their means. Manet went to the Opera to make sketches and in his studio had friends and models pose for the painting. Manet himself appears, second figure from the right with the blonde beard. His card appears to have fallen to the floor at the bottom right. " end quote. What did Manet's sketches consist of? Apparently the sketches don from life were wash sketches, QUOTE: page 350 of same book, " which only a wash (RWII 503 ) and two painted sketches (RW I 214, & 215) survive, Manet was a long time completing the work in his studio; As with Music in the Tuileries (cat 38), of which this picture is reminiscent in more ways than one, Manet posed groups of his male friends, more of whom came to see him on the rue d' Amsterdam than formerly on the rue Guyot, as Duret testifies: " end quote. Friends posing were: Duret himself, Paul Roudier, a composer, Emmanuel Chabrier, a collector; Albert Hecht, and the painters Gillaudin and André (footnote #9, which is Bazire 1884, page 139, Duret, 1906, pages 110 to 111.) however it is difficult to identify them. " end quote. Duret may be the tall one on the left side of the painting.

The painting has seven women in it, although the text in the Manet ( Museum of Metropolitan Museum book) states: 'None of the five women has been identified". With the addition of the two women on the upper section of the balcony or second level , one with only her black pantaloons with gold fringe and white hose, and the other female with white hose and fanciful red orange high heel boots, dangling her leg over the edge of the balcony gold iron railing; plus the five women below, of which all except one, wear an oval black face mask: far left the lady with blue and white striped hose next to the Pierot / or Harlequin figure, then the only one WITHOUT a mask, in blue short pants with a red bow, suspenders, and a black top hat, with blue high heel shoes with white laces who is embraced by a man in a top hat; centrally is the masked woman peering straight at the viewer, wearing pale light blue gloves as she clasps a floral circular bouquet in her right hand; over a black dress; fourth woman is the masked woman all in a long black dress, who is holding her gloves in her hand, and last of the five is the profile woman with black mask , whose shoulders are draped in a red shawl, she also wears a gray hat, and is holding onto the shoulder of a man to her left, ( on the far right side of the painting). All in all seven women. Three in white hose. Two in black dresses. And one younger looking woman, in a white outfit with a colorful bonnet tilted forward on her head; she is the one with the blue and white striped hose or Striped columbine stockings, and flat black shoes.

Excerpt from same text: As poet Stephane Mallarmé sees it:

QUOTE: " The scene is not the hall, where the dancing was, but the promenade behind the boxes. " ( footnote #3) Mallarmé , describing the painting at length the following year, interpreted this particular choice of location as a means of individualizing what would have been a blurred movement, of no time and no place, would not have offered to plastic art a shore of authentically human attitudes. Thus, the costumes merely break up the monotony of black frock coats with some fresh floral tones,; and they disappear sufficiently to render the congestion of lobby strollers a showcase for the display of a modern crowd, which could not be portrayed except with these few bright notes for embellishment. " ( Footnote #4. , which is Mallarmé 1945, page 88)

The painting is fascinating for its assymenterical composition. As if a group of dangling participles and legs blended into so much black and yet shapes are reveled. The far left side has a half figure going out the picture, the same as Zurbaran [ ZURBARÁN , Francisco de (b. 1598, Fuente de Cantos, d. 1664, Madrid)
half sheep painting. This figure of the Pierrette in red and green complementary colors goes off the edge of the picture plane. Spots of blue and white dance throughout the paintings in a sea of black; creating a rhythm all their own.

What were Manet's own historic painted sources or inspiration for this painting other than the actual scene itself?

Text on page 353 of this same book has: QUOTE:

"Leiris has seen a possible iconographic source in the celebrated Burial of the Conde de Orgaz by El Greco ( figure a), which Manet had seen with Duret at Toledo in the summer of 1865 (footnote # 13- Leiris, 1980, pages 95-96, and page 99).

Burial of Count Orgaz El Greco, Burial of Count Orgaz

GRECO, El

http://images.google.ca/images?hl=en&lr=&q=Burial+of+the+Orgaz-Greco&btnG=Search

http://www.biblical-art.com/biblicalsubject.asp?id_biblicalsubject=803&pagenum=1

Manet's Floral Bouquets: A comparison between the floral bouquet in Manet's painting The Masked Ball at the Opera of 1873 to Manet's decade earlier painting of Olympia's 1863 floral bouquet held by the maid.

detail Manet, floral bouquet , www.mystudios.com

DETAIL: the floral bouquet held by pale blue covered gloves. Central portion of The Masked Ball at the Opera, 1873, by Manet

Manet detail, Detail of the maid holding a bouquet for her mistress.- from Olympia,

DETAIL: Detail of the maid holding a bouquet for her mistress.- from Olympia, oil on canvas, 1.30.5 cm x 190 cm., Paris, Musee d' Orsay. by Manet

Olympia, oil on canvas, 1.30.5 cm x 190 cm., Paris, Musee d' Orsay. by Manet

Hands drawings by Thomas Couture, the teacher of Manet.

Hands drawings by Thomas Couture, the teacher of Manet.

Note the sure confident drawing of Couture's hands and note how similar the hands of the masked lady ( who is standing just left of the lady holding the bouquet) , that grasp her gloves so strongly in Manet's The Ball at the Opera and how very similar this grasp is to these drawings of Couture hands that hold these objects, weather feather, stone, or hammer.C.L.S.

photo scan:

Study of Three Hands, chalk on paper. Ex-coll. Bertauts-couture, at Shepherd.

from page 61 of ARTS MAGAZINE/ May 1971, article : by Andrea Mikotajuk-reviews Thomas Couture show at Shepherd ( May 17-June)

QUOTE: " has a major exhibition of drawing by Thomas Couture (1815-1879). ---" Couture's murals have a quality of worldliness that separates them from the work of his contemporaries."

This excellent link has everything on Couture.

Biography: (b Senlis, 21 Dec 1815; d Villiers-le-Bel, 3 March 1879).+ photos+Other sites with information about Couture+

Couture - http://www.invaluable.com

Manet's Floral Bouquets in 2 Cartoons of his time:

A comparison between cartoons that show the floral bouquet in Manet's painting Olympia.

Manet's print of Olympia; note the drawing of the floral bouquet held by the maid.

Cartoon or Caricature by Betall, 1865. ( BERTALL -Manette ou la femme de Eboniste. 1865. )

Cham, Olympia, Caricature in Le Charivari, May 1865.

Manet's PRINT
Cham, Olympia, Caricature in Le Charivari, May 1865.

Olympia

1865-67

Etching

Size: 8.8 cm (3? in.) height by 17.8 cm (7 in.) width

web links to another Manet based painting by Carol Sutton: The Surprised Nymphe

Plus links to other paintings based on MANET by artist Carol Sutton, such as:

Manet: 'The Surprised Nymph'

1859 to 1861

oil on canvas

57 1/2: x 45" , (146 cm x 114 cm)

dated ( on a leaf) and signed (lower left: 1861, : as éd Manet

Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Buenos Aires, Argentina

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known by others and painted by other artist , with this title:Suzanna Surprised by the Elders:

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Also done by Rembrandt, as 'Suzanna surprised by the Elders, (18 3/4" x 15", The Hague, Mauritshuis, on page 238 of the Rembrandt book by Horst Gerson.

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& RUBENS, Peter Paul - painted Susannah and the Elders in 1614.

Susannah and the Elders , Peter Paul Rubens, 1614, Oil on canvas, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm,

Susannah and the Elders , Peter Paul Rubens, 94 x 76 cm, Oil on canvas, Galleria Borghese, Rome, 70663, CD#1155.010

[Version Manet used is lost, known to him from engraving by Vorstermann, or from Charles Blanc, Histoire des peintres ]

via:

http://web.mit.edu/user/s/h/shawmut/www/m2.html

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& TINTORETTO, Susannah and the Elders-The Surprised Nymph (Moses Saved from the Waters). 1859-61.

Oil on canvas. (146 x 114cm)

Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Buenos Aires

"Susannah and the Elders ,Tintoretto, Kunst. Museum, Vienna, A60031, CD#0510.097

Right: Jupiter amoureux d'Antiope se transforme en Satyre , After Titian's Venus del Pardo , Bernard Baron, 38.7x66.3cm, Engraving, Alinari photograph, c. 1890-1900, British Museum, London, PCat, CD#1155.019."
MANET Selected and Related Works Study Images For 4.602, Taught by Leila Kinney : via http://web.mit.edu/user/s/h/shawmut/www/m2.html

Related Imagery:

-----

"Left: Moses Saved , Edme Jeurat, Engraving, Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, PCat, CD#1155.012

Right: Moses Found in the Nile , Simon Vallee, Engraving, Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, PCat, CD#1155.011 "

via http://web.mit.edu/user/s/h/shawmut/www/m2.html

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& Van Dyck, Susannah and the Elders

Antoon Van Dijck 1599-1641

http://fran.sneeknet.nl/homepage/show/pagina.php?paginaid=104297

Carol Sutton's painting:

The Surprised Nymph Manet

82 x 90 1/2",

Date: 1987

inventory number : 87/01/16

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& Carol Sutton's painting:

Suzanna Surprised by the Elders, after Van Dyck, Tintoretto

vertical painting

size: 99 inches x 88 1/2 "

Date: 1987

Inventory number: 87/ 08/ 25

& LINKS

WEB SITES:

MY STUDIOS- MANET

http://www.mystudios.com/manet/paint.html

Manet's Oceanic Feeling

by Nancy Locke

http://www.19thc-artworldwide.org/spring_05/articles/lock.html

CATS & MANET

http://www.brynmawr.edu/visualculture/journal/e_manetsCats3.shtml

CAT PIP and Max Beckman Story by Carol Sutton

Mallarme, Manet, and the Belle Epoch in Paris

by Julie Lorenzen

Berthe Morisot (1841-1895)

http://www.biography.com/impressionists/artists_morisot.html
http://www.julielorenzen.net/paris.html

MANET -Selected and Related Works Study Images For 4.602, Taught by Leila Kinney

4.602 Modern Art and Mass Culture, Leila Kinney

QUOTE: "The works selected are from the first part of Manet's career, when his art involves a recasting or travesty of the works of past masters, often known to him through graphic reproduction, and the use of contemporary imagery generated by the 19th century "media explosion." This group of paintings will be used to explore Michel Foucault's suggestion that Manet is the first "museum painter" and the relationship of his manner of painting to mechanically reproduced imagery. " end quote

Leila Kinney

http://web.mit.edu/user/s/h/shawmut/www/workslist.html

Olympia. 1863. [exhibited Salon of 1865] Oil on canvas. (130.5 x 90cm) Musee d'Orsay, Paris.

RELATED WORKS: http://web.mit.edu/user/s/h/shawmut/www/m11.html

IMAGE CREDITS: (if not already noted in above text)

www.chompy.net/blogs/ jacob/archives/001942/

olympia.jpg=

1115 x 749 pixels - 131k

http://www.artchive.com/artchive/M/manet/olympia.jpg.html

Opera rue Le Peletier:

This engraving dates from 1861 and is in our own collection.

The Opéra before it burnt down in 1873

http://www.hberlioz.com/Paris/BPOpera.html

The Surprised Nymph #1 This is the first in a series about this subject. Manet's wife is the sitter for these paintings. They are thought to be connected with the first rough sketches of The Finding of Moses .The Surprised Nymph

1860

oil on canvas 34x25cm

Private Collection

MY STUDIO.com

http://www.mystudios.com/manet/1860/manet_nymph.html

via

A SUPERB ART AND ARTIST INDEX> WITH TIMELINES> DATES> IMAGES:

http://www.wga.hu/index.html

PRINT IMAGE:

1. CENTAUR GALLERIES

http://www.centaurgalleries.com/Main/Item.cfm?ItemNo=05938

1883)

Olympia

1865-67

Etching

Size: 8.8 cm (3? in.) height by 17.8 cm (7 in.) width

QUOTE: "Manet's "scandalous" canvas of 1863, exhibited at the 1865 Salon, was transcribed in two etchings. The compilers of the catalogues of Manet's graphic work do not agree on their chronological order. The version reproduced here is closer to the painting. Probably made about 1865-67, it was published in Emile Zola's booklet Edouard Manet, Etude biographique et critique, issued in 1867. In this etching Manet suppressed the lower part of the canvas, and by thus reducing the height of the composition he emphasized the length and horizontality of the woman's figure. The painting raised an unusually violent storm of protest. It is difficult for us today to understand the public's reaction. Its objections and repugnance even extended to the black cat, which in itself was considered perfectly outrageous. Visitors to the exhibition were so angry that the canvas had to be protected by attendants against the threat of violence. The critic of Le Constitutionnel'was of course among the detractors. Even "advanced" critics failed to appreciate the painting. Jules Claretie and Theophile Gautier disliked it and said so in forthright terms. The painters themselves were divided over it. Courbet came out against it. Pissarro defended it; so did Degas.

Bracquemond often lent assistance to his painter friends when they took up etching. He attended to the biting of Corot's plates; he helped Manet and Pissarro in the practice of aquatint. For Manet's etching of Olympia, Bracquemond is supposed to have worked on the final states of the copper plate. Five or six states (the exact number is uncertain) were thought necessary to perfect the needling of the plate. In the fourth state, the plate was cut down on both left and right in order to eliminate a vertical strip on both sides which had not been needled. In the final state, the woman's hand on her lower belly was slightly reworked in order to bring out its contours." END QUOTE

The Russell Collection Inventory

Etching and aquatint

Harris' 6th and final state, with full margins. A very fine dark impression with strong contrasts. Harris 53 Guerin 39

Unframed Size: 3 5/8 x 7

Framed Size:

Inventory Number: 902826