The Rue Mosnier with Flags by Éduoard Manet

Where? Room W204 of the J. Paul Getty Museum
When? 1878
What do you see? A street full of French flags on the day that the French people celebrated the fête de la Republique. This work is painted during the afternoon of June 30, 1878. Several well-dressed people walk through the street, and we can see some horse-drawn carriages as well.

On the lower left is a man with one leg. He hunches and wears a blue cape. He is dressed as a laborer and is probably a war veteran. Behind the laborer is a ladder, and to his left is half of a railroad track. To the left of this track is a wooden fence, behind which are the leftovers of a building that had collapsed. On that spot, a new train station was built, the Gare Saint-Lazare.

Backstory: This national holiday was celebrated enthusiastically throughout Paris. However, Manet did not depict the most representative scene from that day. The Rue Mosnier was not a very big street and certainly not the street where the wildest celebrations for the national holiday took place.

Nowadays, the street is called the Rue de Berne. Manet painted this work in front of a second-floor window in his studio overlooking the Rue Mosnier. The Getty Museum acquired this painting in 1989 for $26.4 million, which was the highest price paid for a Manet painting at that time.
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Other versions: Manet painted this street two more times. Both versions are in a private collection. One version, Rue Mosnier with Pavers, shows the street on a normal day when the street is paved. Manet painted the other version, Rue Mosnier Decorated with Flags, earlier on the day on June 30, 1878. This version is a more festive, but less refined depiction of the celebrations.

Rue Mosnier with Pavers by Manet

Rue Mosnier Decorated with Flags by Manet

Moral message: Manet shows the contrast between the celebration of the National Day of France and the consequences of the Franco-Prussian war in 1870-1871 (a war between France and Germany). The well-dressed people, horse carriages, and flags show the prosperous side of France which can be celebrated. In addition, this celebration is in honor of the successful World Expo that took place in Paris.

​In contrast, the one-legged man on the bottom left is probably a war veteran who lost his leg in the war earlier that decade. The leftovers of the railroad track and the collapsed building on the left, represent the war consequences. Manet illustrates that while some people can be happy with their country, others still suffer the consequences of the turbulent past and there is still much work necessary to build up the country.

What is the fête de la Republique? June 30, 1878, was a national holiday in France. It was the first national holiday since 1869. This holiday was in honor of the World Expo which took place in Paris that year. A year later, in 1879, the national holiday was moved to July 14 to commemorate the Storming of the Bastille 100 years earlier.

​The 14th of July is nowadays still the French National Day. Claude Monet also made a painting of the fête de la Republique on June 30, 1878. His painting The Rue Montorgueil in Paris Celebration of 30 June 1878 is on display in the Musée d’Orsay.

​Who is Manet? Édouard Manet (1832-1883) was a French painter from Paris. When he was young, he wanted to join the Navy, but he failed the entrance exam twice. Nonetheless, he always remained fascinated by the sea and has created several paintings with the sea as an important subject. A well-known painting is The Battle of the Kearsarge and the Alabama in the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

The Rue Montorgueil in Paris. Celebration of 30 June 1878 by Monet

As a young painter, Manet was influenced by the works of Frans Hals and Diego Velázquez. However, he developed his own painting style and became one of the founders of Impressionism. This painting is a good example of his Impressionist work. His innovative works have had a big impact on the development of future painting styles.

The Battle of the Kearsarge and the Alabama by Manet

Fun fact: Manet originally created a picture of the disabled man in the bottom left for a music album to be published in 1878. Manet made a drawing of a disabled man, owned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, for a music album, Les Mendiants. The album, created by the unconventional musician Cabaner, is based on poems from a book, La Chansons de Gueux, by Jean Richepin. Beggars, prostitutes, and other outcasts formed the theme of the album.

One of the poems specifically dealt with a disabled man who was begging outside a church. In the end, the album was never released, and Manet could thus use the image of the disabled man for this painting.
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Interested in a copy for yourself? Poster.

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Written by Eelco Kappe

References: 

• Collins, Bradford R. (1975), “Manet's 'Rue Mosnier Decked with Flags' and the Flâneur Concept,” The Burlington Magazine, 117(82), 709-714.
• Kasl, Ronda (1985), “Edouard Manet's ‘Rue Mosnier’: ‘Le pauvre a-t-il une patrie?’,” Art Journal, 45(1), 49-58.
• Reff, Theodore (1982), Manet and Modern Paris : One hundred Paintings, Drawings, Prints, and Photographs by Manet and His Contemporaries, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC.