Manet's Watercolors

This dissertation aims to establish a technical discourse around Édouard Manet’s early watercolors and to clarify their intermediary function between his painting and printmaking in the 1860s. My project breaks from historically medium-specific divisions within museum collections and catalogue raisonnés to consider a series of case studies that attest to Manet’s working methods across media. Guided by collaborative efforts in conversation with curators and conservators, my close physical examination and analysis of the paintings, drawings, and prints that constitute each chapter resulted in new technical imaging that contributes unprecedented visual evidence to the study of Manet’s crucially influential career.