Caillebotte Cassatt Degas Manet Monet Morisot Pissarro Renoir

See the spread

The models for this painting were friends of Manet who posed for many long hours in fifteen separate sessions. The artist was so taken with Berthe Morisot (seated at the railing) that he painted her with much more intensity and detail than he did the others.

"It's perfect"
Manet's friends got so tired of posing that they decided to tell him the painting was perfect so he would stop working on it. In truth, they felt it was going nowhere. Poor Fanny (a talented young violinist) looked silly with a huge white flower on her head, and Antoine (an artist) looked stiff and bored, which he certainly was! Only Berthe brought the painting to life. While she was posing, she was also studying Manet's art techniques.

"Trick the eye"
Manet painted the balcony railing to look real. This is called a trompe l'oeil, which means "trick the eye" in French. If the artist can make us believe the railing is real, and not just painted, he might trick us into feeling as if we are in the same space with the people in the painting.

High contrast
Before Manet, artists usually painted faces with many subtle tones of color. This made them look more three-dimensional. In Manet's paintings you'll notice more contrast and a flatter look. He painted darker darks and lighter lights and skipped the middle tones. And he did not mind letting you see his brushwork.

"In a figure, look for the highest light and the deepest shadow, the rest will come naturally." - Manet's advice on painting a portrait