The Funeral
ca. 1867
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
28 5/8 x 35 5/8 in. (72.7 x 90.5 cm)
Classification
Paintings
Department
European Paintings
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Collection, Wolfe Fund, 1909
Accession Number
10.36
Tags
Art Historical Context
Édouard Manet’s *The Funeral* (ca 1867) captures a poignant moment of Parisian life during the Second Empire, depicting a somber funeral procession winding through the rain-slicked streets. Rendered in oil on canvas, this 28⅝ × 35⅝-inch work blends landscape and urban scene, showcasing the artist’s signature loose brushwork and flattened composition. Manet, a pivotal figure bridging Realism and Impressionism, elevates an everyday bourgeois ritual—marked by black-clad mourners and a horse-drawn hearse—into a modern tableau, drawing from Spanish masters like Velázquez while observing contemporar...
About the Artist
Edouard Manet · 1832–1883
Édouard Manet (1832-1883) was a French painter who played a pivotal role in the transition from Realism to Impressionism, often called the 'Father of Modern Art.' Born into a wealthy Parisian family, Manet defied his father's wishes for a legal career to pursue painting, studying under academic artist Thomas Couture. His revolutionary works 'Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe' and 'Olympia' (both 1863) scand...