Outline the arguments for and against, providing and discussing specific examples to support the two arguments. Give your opinion, with reasons.
Édouard Manet (1832-83) was one of the marginal figures associated with Impressionism. Impressionism is defined by the the online Oxford dictionary as, "a style or movement in painting originating in France in the 1860s, characterized by a concern with depicting the visual impression of the moment, especially in terms of the shifting effect of light and colour." As well as this, Impressionism is thought to have moved beyond the sphere of painting, and contributed to significant musical and literature development also. Impressionist works invite us to look at themes in new ways, and force us to consider the more private and domestic realm that is also worth artistic consideration.
At the end of the nineteenth century, France was the perfect center for a new art form to flourish that was domestic, created sensual pleasure and addressed private collectors. This was a result of its economic climate, which was favorable and rapidly improving, providing an era of bankers and stock brokers that provided Paris with a luxurious and cultural reputation to the rest of the world, (Thompson 2009). Édouard Manet, was born in Paris, to a wealthy, upper middle class household with good political connections. Throughout his lifetime he was described many times as "bourgeois", defining him a middle class man. He was even described by his friend Antonin Proust as, "obviously a thoroughbred" (Cachin, :13). He studied under a respected academic painter named Thomas Couture, but it was a result of his expeditions to Germany, Italy and the Netherlands that his 'brush stroke' style emerged. Manet soon abandoned much of what he had learnt from Couture, and began to paint in this new method of his. His introduction to Spanish artists on his expeditions such as Diego Valázquez and Fransico José de Goya