Summer 1873. Édouard Manet leaves his studio and sets up his easel outdoors for the first time. Before him: a sun-drenched garden, a game of croquet among friends.
An Impressionist Garden
Four figures animate a lush lawn. To the left, a man sits with his back to us, in a white shirt and boater hat, watching the scene. Beside him, a woman in a dark blue dress stands upright, mallet in hand. At the centre, a player in white prepares to strike. In the background, a man in a light suit awaits his turn. Manet paints in rapid, almost nervous brushstrokes. Foliage invades the canvas. Deep greens merge with golden flashes of filtered sunlight. Details emerge like clues scattered through the grass. Natural light models the figures without sharp outlines. The oil on canvas hums with a new energy.
A Deceptive Idyll
This scene of bourgeois leisure conceals a subtle provocation. His painter friend Alfred Stevens poses in the foreground; Paul Roudier appears at the back. The two women are not their wives, but studio models. Manet stages a performance of false respectability. Croquet, a fashionable pastime in private gardens, serves as backdrop to this social comedy. Rarely did Manet come so close to the Impressionist style — yet the composition remains carefully calculated. Each figure occupies a precise position. The apparent spontaneity conceals a rigorous underlying structure.
Édouard Manet
Édouard Manet (1832–1883), a towering figure of modern painting, challenged the conventions of the Second Empire and the Third Republic. A forerunner of Impressionism who never fully aligned himself with the movement, he opened the door to a new pictorial freedom.
Think about it
💭 What do you see in this garden — a peaceful afternoon among friends, or a carefully orchestrated performance?
About this work
- A Game of Croquet
- Édouard Manet
- 1873
- Oil on canvas
- 72 × 106 cm
- Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main
- https://sammlung.staedelmuseum.de/en/work/a-game-of-croquet
