Culture | Artistic frenemies

A show on Manet and Degas examines creative rivalry

Artists are often in dialogue—and competition—with each other

Monsieur and Madame Édouard Manet, 1868–69. — Photograph: Courtesy of Kitakyushu Municipal Museum

Nov 2nd 2023|New York

The painting seems innocent enough. Edouard Manet slumps on a sofa, lost in thought or perhaps bored; his wife, Suzanne, plays the piano. This scene of cosy bourgeois domesticity was captured in the late 1860s by Manet’s friend, Edgar Degas, who gave the painting as a gift to the couple. However, something about the double portrait did not sit well with Manet. He took a knife to it, cropping off Suzanne’s face. Outraged by this unexpected act of violence, Degas took back his painting and, for good measure, returned a still life of nuts Manet had given him. (It does not take an art historian to interpret that.)

This article appeared in the Culture section of the print edition under the headline “Friends with benefits”