Manet

BBC - Manet: The Man Who Invented Modern Art (2009)
HDTV | 1280x720 | .MKV/AVC @ 3345 Kbps | 1h 29mn | Audio: English AAC 128 kbps, 2 channels | Subs: None | 2.10 GiB
Genre: Documentary

Manet is one of the main candidates for the title of the most important artist there's been. As the reluctant father of Impressionism, and the painter of Dejeuner sur L'Herbe, he can probably be accused of inventing modern art. But his story is fascinating on so many other levels. There was Manet's private life, which was chaotic and dramatic, dominated by an affair with his piano teacher who was simultaneously seeing Manet's own dad. To this day, no one is sure if it was Manet junior or senior who fathered the Manet son. No wonder he turned against authority. There were other exotic affairs too, and a particularly horrible death, when, riddled with syphilis and gangrene, Manet had to have his leg amputated. But none of it would matter a jot were it not for the revolutionary art it provoked and coloured.

On June 19, 1864, the United States warship Kearsarge sank the Confederate raider Alabama off the coast of Cherbourg, France, in one of the most celebrated naval engagements of the American Civil War. The battle was widely reported in the illustrated press and riveted public attention on both sides of the Channel. …