Shop art print and framed art Le suicidé by Edouard Manet

Le Suicidé is a painting by Édouard Manet from 1877 to 1881. It is part of the Emil G. Bührle collection in Zurich, Switzerland. The painting shows a man in evening clothes lying on the edge of a bed, blood dripping from a bullet wound in his abdomen. He is holding a revolver in his right hand, indicating that he has just committed suicide. It is not clear what inspired Manet to paint this picture. It could have been the hanging suicide of his young assistant Alexandre in 1859 or 1860, or it could have been an article by Émile Zola about the shooting suicide of Jules Holzapffel (de) in 1866. Although Manet occasionally addressed the theme of death in his work, the way he does so here is rather atypical. The date on which the picture was painted is not known with certainty; some authors give 1877 and others 1881. Manet donated the painting in 1881 to an auction organised by the painter Pierre Franc-Lamy for the benefit of the composer Ernest Cabaner, who was in a sanatorium at the time. The painting belonged to Paul Durand-Ruel, Auguste Pellerin and Baron Hatvany, before joining the E.G. Bührle collection in 1948. Adolphe Tabarant described the painting as a "palette incident". For others, it shows that Manet, in his late work (he died two years after completing the canvas), "saw in the figure of the artist a modern symbol of passion, transforming the artist into a Christ figure". According to Georges Bataille, the painting "clearly manifests [...] a desire to deny - or [...]

 

This artwork is a painting from the modern period. It belongs to the realism style.

 

Find the full description of Le suicidé by Edouard Manet on Wikipedia.