Manet, Édouard (1832 Paris -1883 Paris), French painter, whose work inspired impressionism and had far-reaching influence on the development of modern art. Born in Paris, Manet was influenced primarily by Dutch painter Frans Hals and Spanish artists Diego Velázquez and Francisco José de Goya. He came from a well-to-do background. He came to painting by an indirect route. First he studied law, and then went to naval college, before taking up an artist's career. In 1855 he began six years of study under Couture at the Paris Académie de Beaux-Arts. He devoted much time to copying the old masters in the Louvre, and completed his training by making a number of study tours of Italy, Holland, Germany and Spain. The works of Velázquez and particularly Goya helped form his outlook. Therefore in his early work he often chose Spanish subjects and those of other masters, giving them his own stamp, however. Initially he gained acceptance at Salon exhibitions with his almost conventional choice of colours and themes, but his famous painting Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe (Musée d'Orsay, Paris) was shown at the Salon des Refusés, a new exhibition place opened by Napoleon III following protests by artists rejected at the official Salon. The painting, portraying a woodland picnic with a seated female nude attended by two fully dressed young men, attracted both and wide attention and bitter criticism. Hailed by young painters as their leader, Manet became the central figure in the dispute between the academic and rebellious art factions of his time. 

Although a contemporary and friend of the Impressionists, whose work he admired, he did not follow the aims of pure Impressionism in his own painting. However, when painting in the open, elements of this style can be detected in his work. To him, colours were the supreme device, and in his art he explored their tonal values, limiting himself to a small range of colours and sometimes contrasting them. As with Degas, his themes were contemporary Paris life, but Manet also portrayed political events, such as the "Execution of Maximilian" (Mannheim, Kunsthalle).

Serene interior scenes and the depiction of familiar surroundings and friends occur frequently. He painted portraits of his friend Morisot, of his wife, and of the writers Zola and Mallarmé, and also of politicians and art patrons, including Georges Clemenceau and Antonin Proust. With great skill he captured the peaceful atmosphere in country scenes or by the sea, or cheerful moments in Paris cafés or at the races, making no emotional statements, but using colour tones for expression. His delicate handling of tones is most apparent in his still lifes.

In 1866 French novelist Émile Zola, who championed Manet's art in the newspaper Figaro, became his close friend. Zola, Mallarmé and Baudelaire admired him and paid tribute to his art. In 1881 he was made a member of the Legion of Honour. He was soon joined by the young group of French impressionist painters: Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, Auguste Renoir, Alfred Sisley, Camille Pissarro, and Paul Cézanne. Manet and the impressionists influenced one another, but Manet refused to label his own art as impressionistic.