Portrait of Stéphane Mallarmé

A poet leans back on white cushions, cigar in hand, lost in thought. Manet painted his friend Stéphane Mallarmé in 1876, and those who knew the poet called it his best likeness. One friend said it radiates the friendship of two great minds.

The story behind the painting

Manet and Mallarmé met in 1873, when the poet arrived in Paris, and quickly became close. Mallarmé taught English at the Lycée Fontanes and, on his way home in the late afternoon, would stop almost every day to talk with Manet and his circle. They worked together often: Manet made wood engravings for Mallarmé's poem The Afternoon of a Faun, and four lithographs for his French translation of Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven. Mallarmé in turn defended Manet in print, in an 1874 article on the Salon jury and in an 1876 essay, The Impressionists and Edouard Manet. That same year, 1876, Manet painted this small portrait of his friend.

What to look for

Mallarmé reclines against the white cushions of a couch, perhaps the one in Manet's studio on the rue de Saint-Pétersbourg. He holds a cigar, and his arm rests on a bundle of papers. Behind him is light beige wallpaper decorated with what critics believe are butterflies and flowers, motifs some scholars link to Japanese designs seen in other works by Manet. Watch the smoke rising from the cigar beside those delicate patterns. The art historian Anne Coffin Hanson described the paint as applied with virtuoso freeness. The canvas is small, about 27 by 36 cm, which suits the intimate, almost conversational mood of the scene.

Meaning and intent

Hanson contrasted this relaxed pose with the stiff stance of Manet's portrait of Théodore Duret, and argued that Mallarmé's ease makes the picture feel spontaneous, informal and pointedly modern. The contrast between the cigar smoke and the delicate wallpaper creates an atmosphere that blends sensuality and reflection. The papers under his arm may refer to Mallarmé's article defending Manet and the Impressionists, or to their shared work on The Raven. Critics have noted that the picture's dreaminess recalls Manet's Faun illustrations, and some historians see Mallarmé's features in the poet of Manet's Raven prints. Georges Bataille said the portrait radiates the friendship of two great minds.

Legacy

Contemporaries considered Manet's painting the best likeness of Mallarmé among his many portraits, and Paul Verlaine reproduced it in his 1886 book Les Poètes maudits, in the chapter on Mallarmé. The friendship lasted until Manet's death in 1883. Mallarmé wrote to Verlaine that he had seen his dear Manet every day for ten years and found his absence incredible. In 1928 the Louvre acquired the portrait from Mallarmé's family, with help from the Société des Amis du Louvre and D. David Weill. It hung in the Jeu de Paume from 1947 to 1986, then moved to the Musée d'Orsay, and has travelled to exhibitions in Spain, Russia, Japan and the United States.