Dead Christ with Angels

Artist Edouard Manet (French, 1832 - 1883)

Date1866-1867

MediumEtching with aquatint

DimensionsImage: 15 9/16 x 12 15/16 inches (39.53 x 32.86 cm)
Mat: 21 1/4 x 16 inches (53.98 x 40.64 cm)

Credit LinePurchase: acquired through the generosity of Mr. and Mrs. Milton McGreevy through the Westport Fund

Object numberF72-7

Edition/State/ProofIII/III

On View

Not on view

Collections

Prints

Terms

Exhibition History

Graphic Masterworks from the Permanent Collection, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, May 23–July 25, 1993.

Inked in Time: Six Centuries of Printed Masterpieces, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, February 22–May 31, 1998

The Naked and the Nude: Representations of the Body,The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, October 24, 2006–April 29, 2007; August 14, 2013–February 23, 2014, no cat.

Gallery Label

Particularly in his early career, Manet explored innovative ways of rendering the nude form. In this print, he challenged conventional, idealizing tradition by representing Christ in highly naturalistic fashion as a corpse slumped against a rock. The naked body of Christ is notable for the way in which the musculature is modeled through contrasts of light and shade and tiny curving strokes of the etching needle. Behind are two angels, one weeping and one supporting Christ. This is Manet’s largest etching and was based on a painting now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art that was shown at the 1864 Paris Salon. One critic then compared the figure of Christ to a “poor miner pulled out of a coalmine.”

Provenance

Claude Roger-Marx (1888–1977), Paris;

With Nathan Chaikin [b. 1887], Lully sur Morges, and Vaud, Switzerland, by March 7, 1972;

Purchased from Nathan Chaikin by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1972.

Published References

Etienne Moreau-Nélaton, Manet, graveur et lithographe (Paris: Loys Delteil, 1906), no. 59.

Marcel Guérin, L'Œuvre gravé de Manet (Paris: Floury, 1944; repr., New York: Da Capo Press, 1969), no. 34.

Jean C. Harris, Edouard Manet: Graphic Works; a definitive catalogue raisonné (New York: Collectors Editions, 1970), no. 51.

George L. McKenna, Graphic Masterworks from the Permanent Collection , exh. cat. (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1993).

Roger Ward and Patricia J. Fidler, eds., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection (New York: Hudson Hills Press, in association with Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1993).

George L. McKenna, The Collections of The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: Prints 1460 –1995 (Kansas City, MO: The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in association with The University of Washington Press, 1996), 293.

Inked in Time: Six Centuries of Printed Masterpieces, exh. cat. (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1998).

Deborah Emont Scott, ed., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection , 7th ed. (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2008).

Information about a particular artwork or image, including provenance information, is based upon historic information and may not be currently accurate or complete. Research on artwork and images is an ongoing process, and the information about a particular artwork or image may not reflect the most current information available to the Museum. If you notice a mistake or have additional information about a particular artwork or image, please e-mail provenance@nelson-atkins.org.