Manet was born in Paris January 23rd 1832. He was the son of Auguste Manet, a French judge and Eugenie-Desiree Fournier the goddaughter of the Swedish crown prince, Charles Bernadotte. His father expected him to follow through like him and have a career in law, yet Manet always expressed a love and keen interest for art since a young age. His uncle Charles Fournier encouraged his love for art by taking him on visits to the Louvre. His Uncle then suggested he enrol is a special course of drawing, in which he took and met Antonin Proust, the future Minister for fine arts and a lifelong friend. Manet refused his father in studying law, but he was prevented from studying art. So with the many attempts of his father to set him up with a respectful career to uphold the name, Manet boarded a Navy vessel headed for Brazil in 1848. Returning if 1849, Manet failed his naval exams. And once again did he fail, not due to being uneducated; Manet was educated yet stubborn to follow his dream in creating art. After failing twice his parents saw no hope in him wishing to do anything other than just that, yet they supported him in attending art school.
Manet began studying under classical painter Thomas Couture, who he learnt from for 6 years before getting his first studio in 1856. While studying with Couture Manet often visited the Louvre to copy master pieces of his time for hours. Manet also travelled between 1853-56 to Italy, Germany, Holland where he gained influence from artist Frans Hals, Diego Velazquez and Francisco Jose de Goya. The Absinthe Drinker (1858) was the beginning of Manet’s career according to critics and historians. The shows the alcoholic man in the dim streets of Paris, it’s reality in which most