The Guitar Player

The Guitar Player exemplifies Manet’s controversial “modern” approach, with its contemporary figure painted on a large canvas; a flat, two-dimensional picture plane; a sharp contrast of dark and light against a neutral background; and no idealized sentiment so prevalent in the accepted hierarchy of historical, religious, and allegorical paintings at that time. In this painting, as in several others, Manet imbued an everyday subject with the dignity and size of an official portrait, a concept that was highly controversial in his day.