Shop art print and framed art L'évasion de Rochefort by Edouard Manet

The Escape of Rochefort was painted by Édouard Manet in December 1880 for the 1881 Salon, shortly before his death. The painting is a tribute to the anti-imperial polemicist Henri Rochefort and his escape from the penal colony of New Caledonia on 19 March 1874 in the company of Paschal Grousset and Olivier Pain in Nouméa (swimming between the Ducos peninsula and the unguarded islet of Kuauri, then by whaleboat to the PCE (Peace, Comfort, Ease), a British ship due to set sail for Newcastle in Australia the following day). However, the canvas focuses less on the people in the boat than on the sea that surrounds them, looking titanic and intimidating. In the distance, we can make out the ships aboard which the escapees will make their escape. In this version, Rochefort can be seen holding the rudder of the whaleboat. Manet painted a second version of the painting in which Rochefort is barely recognisable in any particular role; the whaleboat has become a boat lost in a much calmer sea that takes up most of the picture. Manet seems to have been disturbed by the emerging controversy among the escapees about the role Rochefort was supposed to have played. In the end, Manet chose to exhibit a third painting at the Salon, the portrait of Henri Rochefortportrait d'Henri [...]

 

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

 

« L'évasion de Rochefort » is kept at Musee d'Orsay, Paris, France.

 

Find the full description of L'évasion de Rochefort by Edouard Manet on Wikipedia.