Photograph: Édouard Manet

Photograph of Édouard Manet by Nadar, c. 1910

Photograph: Suzanne Leenhoff / Madame Manet

Photograph of Suzanne Leenhoff, Madame Manet,Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris

Olympia's Look by Susan Vreeland

Portrait of Mme. Manet on a Blue Sofa, 1874, Musée d'Orsay, Paris





Read Olympia’s Look from Susan Vreeland, Life Studies (New York: Viking, 2005), 69-91. I will discuss Édouard Manet and show a PowerPoint presentation on Wednesday February 25 containing many of the images alluded to in the Vreeland short story.
Based on Vreeland’s portrayal and on your interpretation of this short story, how do you understand Suzanne Manet’s personality, her character?
Select and discuss two passages from Olympia’s Look that you found interesting and that relate to your understanding of Suzanne Manet’s character. What do you like or dislike about the two sections you selected, and how do they address an issue of character.
An individual is affected by the cultural environment, by close relationships, and by formative experiences and events. That said, do you believe Vreeland’s Suzanne Manet exerts free will in this story? Or, is she only reacting to the forces and events in her life? Does the author give you a sense of who she was or who she will become?
Some of you had criticisms of Vreeland’s writing when you read The Yellow Jacket. How do you feel about the writing of this story? What strengths and weaknesses do you find in the writing?
What questions or comments do you have about other characters in the short story? What questions or comments do you have about the fact or fiction aspects of the story?

Who is that person really?

With the first blog, you speculated on a portrait without knowledge of the title or artist’s name; you based your narrative on careful observation and creative speculations. There were no wrong answers. The only way to flub that assignment was to not work at the observations or the speculation or to write poorly.
With this assignment, we are unearthing factual answers to the same question: Who is that person? Sometimes the appearance of a portrait subject is due to the character of the person portrayed. Sometimes the appearance of a portrait is a projection of the artist’s personality. Often there is some combination of the two contained in the image. Art comes to us through the artist’s sensibilities and is received by our sensibilities.
Who is that person? Tell us in the form of an annotated bibliography. Include research using at least two or three sources to solve some of the riddles and to research the image you chose for the Who is that Person assignment. With this short annotated bibliography assignment I am not specifying what type of source you use. You may, with this initial annotated bibliography, use all credible web sites if you can find answers there. All should be cited properly. The object of this assignment is two-fold: Find some answers, through research, to the factual questions surrounding the identity of the portrait and the artist responsible for creating the image. Practice constructing an annotated bibliography. In your annotations, reveal the answers you uncovered with your research. Under the title of your bibliography, specify which citation style you have employed.