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Beggar with Oysters (Philosopher)

A work made of oil on canvas.
CC0 Public Domain Designation

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  • A work made of oil on canvas.

Date:

1865/67

Artist:

Édouard Manet
French, 1832-1883

About this artwork

By age 30, Édouard Manet had gained recognition at the state-sponsored Salon exhibition in Paris and established himself as the artist to watch, creating new imagery for contemporary works that translated Old Master painting into a modern idiom. Here he looked to the 17th-century Baroque artist Diego Velázquez, whose two paintings of world-weary philosophers (Aesop and Menippus, both c. 1638) Manet had admired that year at the Museo del Prado in Madrid, Spain. Like Velázquez’s representation of the ancient stoics (whose poverty is associated with wisdom), Manet’s beggar-philosophers fit into the popular notion of the social outcast as a seer possessing rare insight.

This painting and Beggar with a Duffle Coat were probably conceived as companion pieces.

Status

On View, Gallery 222

Department

Painting and Sculpture of Europe

Artist

Édouard Manet

Title

Beggar with Oysters (Philosopher)

Place

France (Artist's nationality:)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

1860–1870

Medium

Oil on canvas

Inscriptions

Inscribed lower left: Manet

Dimensions

188 × 111 cm (74 × 43 5/16 in.)

Credit Line

Arthur Jerome Eddy Memorial Collection

Reference Number

1931.504

IIIF Manifest  The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.

https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/8969/manifest.json

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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