Édouard Manet ( 23 January 1832 – 30 April 1883) was a French painter. One of the first 19th-century artists to approach modern-life subjects, he was a pivotal figure in the transition from Realism to Impressionism.
The artist is the opposite of the politically minded individual, the opposite of the reformer, the opposite of the idealist. The artist does not tinker with the universe, he recreates it out of his own experience and understanding of life. Art is... a question mark in the minds of those who want to know what's happening.Art... does not take kindly to facts, is helpless to grapple with theories, and is killed outright by a sermon.... I said Art is a kind of illness!! .