Accession Number
2008/2.404

Title
Le Chanteur Espinol ou le Guittarrero

Artist(s)
Édouard Manet

Artist Nationality
French (culture or style)

Medium & Support
etching, roulette, soft ground on cream laid paper printed in brown/black ink

Dimensions
18 1/8 in x 15 5/8 in (46.04 cm x 39.69 cm);11 5/8 in x 9 5/8 in (29.53 cm x 24.45 cm);18 1/8 in x 15 5/8 in (46.04 cm x 39.69 cm)

Credit Line
Gift of Ruth W. and Clarence J. Boldt, Jr.

Subject matter
This etching was made after Manet's oil painting of the same name (painted in 1860), reversing the original composition. The painting marked Manet's debut in the Paris Salon in 1861, and was well-received by critics. The image recalls traditional genre paintings depicting musicians, and infuses these precedents with Manet's interest in Spanish subject matter.

Physical Description
A man sits on a wooden bench, which is angled slightly towards the back left of the composition. He looks off to the side while singing and accompanying himself on an acoustic guitar, with his left foot raised to support the instrument. He wears a costume consisting of a black hat with a white scarf tied around his head underneath, a black jacket over a white shirt, light-colored trousers and simple lace-up shoes. In the lower left corner of the image there is a still-life of a dark-colored jug and several onions, while a smoking cigar lays discarded on the floor underneath the singer's raised foot. The image utilizes strong contrasts of light and shadow.
Manet signed his name ("éd. Manet") in the image's uppper right corner inside a light oval achieved through stopping-out. The printer ("Delâtre, Paris") is named in etched script in the lower right corner of the image. 

Primary Object Classification
Print

Primary Object Type
intaglio print

Collection Area
Modern and Contemporary

Rights
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please visit http://umma.umich.edu/request-image for more information and to fill out the online Image Rights and Reproductions Request Form.

Keywords
Spanish (culture or style)
costume (mode of fashion)
etching (printing process)
etchings (prints)
genre (visual works)
guitars
musicians
still lifes