Edouard Manet (1832–1883) is one of the most famous artists of the 19th century. Zacharie Astruc (1833–1907), however, is almost unknown as an artist today. Initially he made a name for himself as an art critic: he was the first to publicly defend Manet’s works.
In the 1860s Manet painted him several times. With the Portrait of Zacharie Astruc of 1866, which is a part of the collection of the Kunsthalle Bremen, Manet created a programmatic statement on the taste of the avant-garde. Everything the two loved and discussed is contained in the painting – Japonism, Spanish fashion, the art of the Old Masters and music.
This exhibition is the latest chapter in a series of major exhibitions at the Kunsthalle Bremen on nineteenth-century French painters, such as Vincent van Gogh, Claude Monet, Gustave Caillebotte and, most recently, Emile Bernard.