France in the Time of Manet and Morisot

Events included war and the loss of territory; modernization and the rise of industry; and a shift from rural to urban living. As both artists were living in Paris, it became the largest city in continental Europe and the arts capital of the world. Manet and Morisot’s lifetimes also coincided with the birth and rise of a new art form—photography—which recorded many of these social, political, and cultural changes.

Masters of the new medium such as Charles Marville and Édouard-Denis Baldus were commissioned by the Emperor Napoleon III, the Louvre museum, and the railroads to document both historic monuments and the construction of new architectural and engineering marvels throughout the country. This era also saw the rise of celebrity portraiture and of the general public as patron. Actresses such as Sarah Bernhardt and popular authors Victor Hugo, Charles Baudelaire, Alexandre Dumas, and others sat for photographers such as Nadar, André-Adolphe-Eugene Disderi, Gustave Le Gray, and Étienne Carjat. The resulting portraits were printed—and sold—in large quantities to meet a soaring public demand for portraits of the luminaries of the time. When the rising urban middle class sought to have their own likenesses recorded, they flocked to the same studios.

In this exhibition, drawn from the museum’s rich holdings of 19th-century French photography, we can feel that we, like the photographers, are eyewitnesses to the transformation of France in the 1800s. This show was organized to complement Manet & Morisot, on view in the Kelvin and Eleanor Smith Foundation Gallery from March 29 through July 5, 2026.

This exhibition is made possible with support from Anne T. and Donald F. Palmer.