Identifier: manetfrenchimpre00dure (find matches)
Title: Manet and the French impressionists: Pissarro--Claude Monet--Sisley--Renoir--Berthe Morisot--Cézanne--Guillaumin
Year: 1910 (1910s)
Authors: Duret, Théodore, 1838-1927 Flitch, J. E. Crawford (John Ernest Crawford), tr
Subjects: Manet, Edouard, 1832-1883 Painting Impressionism (Art)
Publisher: Philadelphia : J. B. Lippincott company
Contributing Library: Harold B. Lee Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Brigham Young University

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of the UnitedStates navy sank the Confederate cruiser Alabama, in sight ofCherbourg. For a long time the Alabama had been shelteringin Cherbourg harbour in order to avoid being captured or destroyedby the more heavily armed Kearsage ; but at last Captain Semmes,who commanded her, growing weary of the blockade, determinedto take the risk and try his strength against the enemy. The cir-cumstances of the fight were peculiar, for it took place withinview of a number of ships, which had taken up positions near thecombatants as soon as it was known that the attack was aboutto be made. Manet, having been informed beforehand of thecoming encounter, went to Cherbourg and watched the actionfrom a pilot-boat. Thus his picture presents a scene of which hewas an actual spectator. Having spent a part of his boyhoodas a sailor, Manet was no stranger to the sea. In his paintingshe usually represented it as a plane sloping upwards towardsthe horizon—as, in fact, it actually appears when viewed from
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COMBAT DU KEARSAGE ET DE UALABAMA MANET \ LE BON BOCK 63 the shore or from a boat, with the eye nearly level with thewater. In his Combat du Kearsage et de I Alabama the sea riseslike a liquid plane to the horizon, where the two ships are seenfighting enveloped in a cloud of smoke, the vanquished Alabamapartially submerged. This method of painting a seascape provedsomewhat disconcerting to the public of the Salon; with theirusual proneness to criticise Manet, they once more accused himof having deliberately aimed at eccentricity. But the simplicityof composition and the uniformity of tone to a certain extentdisarmed opposition. Several critics and a certain number ofconnoisseurs even admitted that there were elements of grandeurin the picture. This was the first picture of Manets whichhad been on view for a year past, and accordingly there was akind of lull in the storm which raged round his name. Circum-stances were propitious for a reaction in his favour. This reactioncame in the fo

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