Friendship and rivalry of two art giants

Copying famous works of art was part of painters' training for many centuries. Numerous artists continued their education at the Louvre in Paris − including Edgar Degas (1834 - 1917) and Édouard Manet (1832 - 1883), who met there and became friends. They were both around 30 and had set themselves the task of capturing »la vie modern« − modern life ‑ in Paris. They counted themselves among the naturalists, but from the 1870s Degas and a few others turned to Impressionism. The friendship, now accompanied by disputes, ended and developed into a rivalry.

In the exhibition Manet/Degas, the Musée d'Orsay in Paris brings together two famous painters of the 19th century who, on the one hand, were closely associated and yet, on the other hand, produced extremely different paintings. Numerous masterpieces are on view together for the first time, illustrating how the two artists both inspired and disliked each other. The exhibition also introduces the origins and ideas of Impressionism, which Degas later joined. It runs from March 28 to July 23.

The exhibition was created in collaboration with the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, where it will be on view from September 2023 to January 2024.