Dead Christ with Angels Drawing by Manet in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, December 2023

Title: The Dead Christ with Angels

Artist: Edouard Manet (French, Paris 1832–1883 Paris)

Date: 1864–68

Culture: French

Medium: Graphite, watercolor, gouache, pen and India ink

Dimensions: 12 13/16 × 10 5/8 in. (32.5 × 27 cm)
Mount: 15 3/8 × 20 5/16 in. (39 × 51.6 cm)
Framed: 21 5/8 × 16 3/4 × 13/16 in. (55 × 42.5 × 2 cm)

Classification: Drawings

Credit Line: Musée d'Orsay, Paris (RF 4520)

Manet produced this richly saturated drawing after his painting; its reversal of the original composition demonstrates its intermediate role in his process of creating the related etching. The artist routinely made small adjustments when translating his work from one medium to the next. Here he brought out the blue-winged angel’s feet and added a reflective highlight to the crying angel’s hair. The artist surely considered this watercolor a finished work in its own right; he gave it to the writer Émile Zola to thank him for the supportive article he published in 1867.

Text from: www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/851735