Take Two: Portrait of Mademoiselle Claus and Perspective II, Manet’s Balcony

Acquired by the Ashmolean Museum in 2012, Édouard Manet’s magnificent portrait of Mademoiselle Claus will be displayed at the Fitzwilliam Museum, alongside René Magritte‘s surrealist masterpiece, Perspective II, Manet’s Balcony (1950), generously on loan from the Museum of Fine Arts in Ghent. Once owned by the painter John Singer Sargent, Manet’s painting is a first idea for his famous painting The Balcony (1868-9, Musée d’Orsay, Paris), itself inspired by Goya’s Majas on a Balcony of 1810 (Metropolitan Museum, New York). The portrait’s subject is Fanny Claus (1846-77), a concert violinist and one of the artist’s favourite sitters. She died of tuberculosis at the age of 30. Magritte’s painting wittily reinterprets Manet’s finished painting by substituting the three sitters, including Fanny Claus, with coffins. Supported by a grant of £5.9 million from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), and £850,000 from the Art Fund, the acquisition of Manet’s portrait of Fanny Claus was the most significant in the Ashmolean’s history. Both paintings are on display in the Museum’s Impressionist gallery (Gallery 5).

Suitable for
Family friendly


Website
www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/whatson/exhibitions/article.html?5382

Source: http://www.culture24.org.uk/se000375?id=EVENT539095