Still-life painting offers everything from pure sensual pleasure to a challenge for rigorous aesthetic analysis. A bowl of luscious fruit, a vase of exquisite flowers, an arrangement of food on a table---all can be enjoyed on many levels.

Manet's still-life paintings are among the finest ever created, and account for almost one-flfth of all his works. The full range of these oils, watercolors, and prints is discussed in this groundbreaking study and beautifully reproduced in color.

George Mauner, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Art History at Permsylvania State University, traces the influences of earlier artists and writers on Manet and explains the allusions hidden in a number of his paintings. A wide array of comparative illustrations enhances his text, which offers new scholarship and many fresh insights that add to the reader's understanding of and pleasure in the works.

Henri Loyrette, Director of the Musee d' Or-say in Paris, explores the history and philosophy of still life painting. He places Manet in the context of still life as a movement from Chardin and the Dutch masters to its role in the development of abstract art. His essay will forever deepen the reader's experience when looking at a still life.

Lenders to the Exhibition

Directors' Foreword

Preface

Acknowledgments

Manet and the Life of Nature Morte by George Mauner

The Plates

THE STILL LIFE AS SELF-PORTRAIT: HAT AND GUITAR

STILL LIFE AND THE FIGURE: OBJECTS AS EMBLEMS

THE PORTABLE STILL LIFE: BOY CARRYING A TRAY

THE SET TABLE AND THE TABLE SETUP

THE FIRST FLOWERS

FRUITS AND VEGETABLES

FLOWERS IN AN ENVELOPE

A WATERING CAN AND SOME ARTICLES OF FASHION

TWO FESTIVE TABLES

A DECORATIVE ENSEMBLE

THE LAST FLOWERS

Manet: The New Painting and Still Life by Henri Loyrette

Catalogue of the Exhibition

Exhibitions Cited

Bibliography

Photography Credits

Index