Review of the Lecture
Our lecture on Thursday 19th February was on Eduard Manet and Music. Manet was one of the originators of Impressionism, and was well-embedded in the nineteenth century artistic milieu in Paris. As well as painting, he was part of the set which reinvented many arts such as theatre and literature, as well as all types of music. He married his father's music teacher, who was herself a talented musician. Some of his early paintings were of her at her piano. It was also a time of great upheaval in France, with much reordering of Paris by Baron Haussmann, who created the wine boulevards that are such a feature of Paris today. This caused much disruption, and Manet painted many of those displaced, both poor French people and gypsies, many of them street musicians. After the disastrous defeat of France by the Prussians in 1870, and then the bloody end of the Paris Commune in 1871, Manet concentrated on paintings of musical soirees and still lives involving musical instruments.
Our lecturer was Lois Oliver. She is a keen violinist and plays regularly with orchestras including the Endellion Festival Orchestra. She illustrated her lecture with musical interludes of music that Manet would have heard, including one piece written for MMe Manet.
- Professor Robert Gurney
Music was a constant theme in Edouard Manet’s life and art. His wife Suzanne Leenhoff was a gifted pianist, and regular musical soirées were held at the Manet family home.
His pictures of musicians and their audiences range from major early canvases depicting itinerant gypsy musicians and Spanish dancers, through to paintings encompassing the full range of Parisian musical culture, from private performances to street entertainment, café concerts and the Paris Opera. Manet also designed cover illustrations for music composed by his friends.
Lois Oliver is an Art Historian with extensive experience as a Lecturer, Curator and Exhibition Organiser. She studied English Literature at Cambridge University, and History of Art at the Courtauld Institute, completing an MA in Venetian Renaissance Art and writing her doctoral thesis on ‘The Image of the Artist, Paris 1815-1855’.
She spent a decade working in museums, initially at the Harvard University Art Museums, before joining the curatorial team at the V&A and then the National Gallery in London, where she curated several exhibitions and contributed to major re-displays of the collections.
Lois is currently Associate Professor in History of Art at the University of Notre Dame (USA) in London and a Visiting Lecturer at the Courtauld Institute, she lectures for arts organisations throughout the UK, and writes specialist audio interpretation for clients including the National Gallery, National Maritime Museum, Royal Academy, Royal Collection and Tate. She has appeared on a number of TV programmes for the BBC and Channel 5, as well as broadcasting on BBC Radio 3 and BBC Radio 4. Also a keen violinist, she plays regularly with orchestras including the Endellion Festival Orchestra.