EMULATION AND REPETITION IN 19TH CENTURY ART
 

In time, Manet, attempts to change the “pathetic and resistant” (Bordes, 110), nature of the tragic male figure through various aspects of composition. In 1871, he produced Guerre Civile (Civil War) 1871 (Fig. 1), another lithograph dealing with highly similar figural aspects. The angle of the body is reversed with the position of the legs directed towards the upper right; rather than the left. However, it is still easy to see how one translates to the other. “Manet's use of the “Dead Toreador”, reversed in pose and isolated in the setting, alerts us to his strategy of adapting preexisting images…” (Baas, 38). In this adaptation, the figure is no longer a dead toreador, but rather a dead soldier “abandoned alongside a dismantled barricade” (Baas, 40). Another pair of legs coming through the bottom right corner, implicate the myriad of deaths within the scene and in turn giving it a completely different meaning than Le Torero Mort (The Dead Toreador) 1867 (Fig.2), which concentrates on a single figure. This compositional technique of suggestion is parallel with the ambiguity it instills, while still allowing the viewer to come to terms with what he or she is viewing. It is clear in comparing the two that Guerre Civile (Civil War) 1871 (Fig.1) is influenced much more by modernity, in terms of clothing and setting. Also, Manet's choice to render a background adds to the subtleties within the piece that act as the thematic adhesive in the whole scene; bringing together smaller and less obvious visual facets into one recognizable scene. Le Torero Mort (The Dead Toreador) 1867 (Fig.2) fails to do this with its lack of background, and highly recognizable figural aspects of the scene, with no mystery other than how the toreador was specifically injured, or who he actually is. On the contrary Guerre Civile (Civil War) 1871 (Fig.1), has figural ambiguity while it is rich in context and setting. This anonymity rids the figure of any tragic qualities, ultimately rendering the scene less classically heroic and more relatable modernity. “Clearly “Civil War” belongs to this chain of visual reverberations. An examination of its relationship to these other works yields a valuable perspective on the type of audience reaction Manet wished print to elicit” (Baas, 38).

In the figures transformation from Le Torero Mort (The Dead Toreador) 1867 (Fig.2) to Guerre Civile (Civil War) 1871 (Fig.1) the heroic male figure becomes an emotionless martyr in his inability to be conscious of ones own honorable death, due to the anonymity within the figure. Compared to Drouais’, Wounded Roman Soldier, 1785 (Fig. 3), whose consciousness almost defines the entire composition. The unidentifiable man within “Guerre Civile (Civil War) 1871 (Fig.1) causes the viewer to relate emotion to the scene as a whole, rather than just the figure. In addition, the further loss of figural aspects due to the induction of clothes, concentrate more so on aesthetic reaction, rather than aesthetic pleasure; also adding to the loss of emotion, and emphasis of ambiguity. Jacquelynn Bass argues in her article “Édouard Manet and ‘Civil War’” that if Manet had rendered it with a straightforwardness rather than its inherent vagueness, it would have not been received well. Knowing this, Manet rendered his scene with less obvious qualities both in figure and composition, in turn causing less emotional attachment to the individual and more attention paid to perceiving the overall scene.

Examining Manets modern male figure, Guerre Civile (Civil War) 1871 (Fig.1), without knowing its specific history, would still evoke the detached sense of death, just in its general composition. However, to get to this point, the male figure went through many forms of variation, dealing with the relationship between bodily position and emotion. Manet capitalized on this rendering of his figure in Guerre Civile (Civil War) 1871 (Fig.1) too vague to place identity and any form of emotion within it. This new idea of the male figure lacked the heroism and tragedy that defined it in the past. Any honor or will to live is erased within the indistinctness of Manet's new forms. Influenced by the onset of modernity, Manet composed something that people of the era could relate to as a whole, rather than just relating to one specific figure full of emotion. His progressive additions to the world of art are emulative as they are repetitive; yet the change he instills within these male figures are true to himself, and true to the modern day. Without the superfluous emotions and dramatized feeling received from the archetypical male nude, Manet renders scenes that can be only be described as accurate to the disarray of life, presenting a more personal feel, while still eliminating emotion, and the tragedy that defines that classic male hero

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Figure 1. Figure 2. Figure 3.
Édouard Manet, Le Torero Mort (The Dead Toreador) 1867)