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This first psychobiographical portrait of the French artistic revolutionary, Edouard Manet, describes some of the possible developmental impediments and psychological conflicts in his life. A case is made that Manet suffered from a narcissistic personality disturbance based on considerable, albeit spurious, individuation in the face of failed separation. Preoedipal and oedipal conflicts are traced from the available biographical data. They suggest that Manet's lifelong yearning for approbation and inability to sustain mature object relationships derives from his quest for a loving, admiring father and a struggle against an enveloping, rejecting mother. Failed paternal identifications, persistent primal maternal identifications, excessive needs for selfobject affirmation, superficial but compulsive hetero-sexuality, and rejection of his own paternity were powerful forces within Manet that found expression in his life and creative products. Although painting enabled Manet to transcend some of his own characterological vulnerabilities, it appears that he remained a tormented personality quite destructive towards others and to himself. Understanding more fully the developmental impingements and facilitators of this “tragic actor” may lead to a greater appreciation of his artistic contribution.
Edouard Manet () is generally recognized for wielding a premier brush in modern painting. He initiated a veritable revolution in art by emphasizing the immediacy of a particular moment (Valery, 1960; Schneider, 1968), stressing the grandeur of the contemporary scene (Hanson, 1977; Clark, 1985), and splashing the canvas with a fresh, vibrant, colorful palette (Rewald, 1947; Pool and Orienti, 1985). In so doing, the artist persistently