The Tragic Actor

Black clothing surrounds a pale face and two crossed hands in The Tragic Actor. A feathered hat hangs beside the figure; a sword lies at his feet. Édouard Manet portrays the French actor Philibert Rouvière as Hamlet.^[1] The narrow canvas accommodates his whole body, but the gestures remain contained. Much of the picture's activity lies in small changes within the costume and in the tension between the sideways glance and the still hands.

Rouvière as Hamlet

Rouvière played Hamlet in the French adaptation by Alexandre Dumas and Paul Meurice. His performances attracted the admiration of writers including Baudelaire and Théophile Gautier. He was also a painter, with theatrical subjects among his works.^[2] This background gives the portrait a particular subject: a professional performer assuming a familiar role, rather than an anonymous man wearing historical clothes.

Manet nevertheless chose a general title. In a letter to Baudelaire, he explained that calling the portrait The Tragic Actor would help avoid criticism from people who did not find the likeness convincing.^[3] The general title invites attention to costume, stance and expression even from viewers unfamiliar with Rouvière's appearance or career.

The pose combines presentation with restraint. The shoulders turn at an angle, while the head comes back towards the front. The legs occupy different directions, one shoe projecting towards the viewer and the other turning sideways. Above them, the hands gather close to the body. These departures from a frontal stance keep the figure from becoming rigidly symmetrical.

The Head and Glance

The face sits high within the dark shape of the costume. Curving hair rises above the forehead, and the beard widens beneath the chin. Between these dark borders, pale pink and warmer brown passages establish the cheeks and brow. The moustache makes a strong horizontal interruption above the mouth, while the eyes appear under heavily marked eyebrows.

The glance passes sideways, away from the central line of the body. That shift gives the head a different direction from the hands below. Manet concentrates the contrast around the eyes and nose, then lets the beard merge more closely with the surrounding darkness. The white collar breaks that connection, making a narrow irregular band between head and chest.

These differences give the face an alert presence. The eyes draw attention outward; the closed mouth and compact lower face hold the expression together.

Black against Black

The clothing contains several kinds of black, separated by grey highlights and by changes in the direction of the strokes. On the rounded sleeve at the left, narrow light ridges bend down towards the cuff. Across the chest, longer oblique marks follow the folds towards the waist. Their edges are uneven, with brighter passages emerging from darker areas rather than tracing every fold continuously.

At the right, the cloak falls in a broader shape. A long grey fold runs down from the shoulder, making an edge within the dark garment. Beside it, a much less interrupted area gives the cloak weight. Lower down, its curved end projects beyond the leg. This broad hanging form balances the more broken contours of the sleeve and feathered hat on the opposite side.

The gathered lower garment introduces another rhythm. Curves spread from the waist and turn around the thighs before meeting the narrower stockings. Light touches follow some of these curves, then disappear. The change from full cloth to fitted legs is clear even though the whole costume remains dark.

Writing in 1867, Émile Zola praised Manet's handling of the neighbouring black fabrics and their subtle differences of tone.^[4] Those distinctions remain central to the picture. White appears only in small passages at the neck, chest and cuff. Against the larger dark areas, these broken accents help the viewer locate the body inside the costume.

Hands Hat and Plume

The crossed wrists form the lightest substantial group below the face. One hand lies over the other, with a finger extending downwards. Short warm and grey strokes distinguish the fingers from the white cuff behind them. A ring with a red stone supplies a small concentrated colour accent on the other hand.

The hands also interrupt the folds. Lines descending through the chest converge near them, while the dark cloth below spreads out again. The downward finger continues this movement briefly before ending against the black garment. It is a small gesture, but its clear outline gives it weight within the otherwise closely grouped hands.

Beside them, the hat opens into a curved dark form. Its large plume descends towards the knee in a succession of curling, uneven shapes. Some feather edges catch narrow highlights; others disappear into the darker mass. The plume gives the left side of the figure a more irregular silhouette than the smooth fall of the cloak at the right.

Together, hat and hands occupy a place between the upper body's compact folds and the longer lines of the legs. The pale fingers are immediately legible; the headwear asks for slower looking as its black shapes separate from one another.

The Sword and the Ground

The sword's guard lies near the lower left corner, its looping forms spreading around the grip. From this intricate shape, the blade travels diagonally behind the legs. The weapon is detached from the hands and placed close to the viewer, where its thin lines contrast with the broad shoes and stockings.

Long shadows extend from the feet towards the right edge. They make dark paths across the lighter ground, while the sword sends a separate diagonal in the other direction. These lines give the lower picture an openness quite different from the densely gathered forms around the waist.

The setting becomes darker as it rises behind the actor. Brown and grey passages surround the shoulders, with lighter strokes appearing near the lower edges of the cloak. There is no firmly drawn junction between floor and wall. The figure stands securely through the feet and their shadows, while the surrounding space remains difficult to measure.

This spare setting can suggest a stage without describing its architecture. The costume and sword provide the theatrical equipment; the empty area around them leaves the stance, glance and crossed hands to carry the encounter.

A Portrait Completed

The portrait was unfinished when Rouvière died in October 1865. Rouart and Wildenstein's catalogue reports that Manet completed it with help from his friends Paul Roudier and Antonin Proust, who posed for the hands and legs.^[5] The National Gallery of Art dates the painting 1866.^[1]

The resulting figure combines an actor's portrait with the larger presence of a theatrical role. Its dark outline reads clearly from a distance; closer looking divides it into face, hands, folds and accessories. These different scales of attention help explain why the general title remains effective alongside the sitter's name.

Velázquez and the Surrounding Space

Manet's arrangement recalls Velázquez's Pablo de Valladolid, which he admired during his visit to Madrid in 1865. The relationship is discussed in the Manet/Velázquez exhibition catalogue.^[6] The Prado describes Velázquez's portrait through its restricted palette, expressive figure and barely defined space.^[7]

In The Tragic Actor, the dark clothing similarly gains force from the area left around it. The lighter ground makes the lower silhouette particularly distinct, while the upper body belongs more closely to the brown background. The figure is both clearly bounded and surrounded by passages that resist becoming a particular room. A related interest in an isolated standing figure also appears in Manet's The Fifer.

The Related Etching

Manet also made an etching after the painting. The Metropolitan Museum of Art's impression comes from the Strölin edition of 1905, although the composition dates from 1865–66. It is the final state, printed on blue laid paper.^[8] The sheet preserves the figure's orientation: the plume still descends at the left, with the sword below it and the forward shoe nearer the right.

The change of medium alters the surrounding space. Short interlacing lines spread across the upper background, leaving small openings between them. Around the head, their density makes the pale forehead and collar stand out. Within the clothing, the marks change direction to follow the sleeve, chest and gathered folds.

The lower right contains a much lighter opening. The long shadows cross it as dark, narrowing forms, giving the legs a sharper relation to the ground. Elsewhere, the surrounding lines approach the darkness of the costume, so parts of the figure must be distinguished through the direction and spacing of the marks.

The print retains the painting's gestures, but makes their construction through lines more apparent. The crossed hands remain a conspicuous light group, and the plume becomes a long sequence of curls against the worked background. Looking between the two images reveals how the same arrangement can depend on broad tonal passages in paint and on accumulated marks in an etching.

From the Salon to Washington

The painting and The Fifer were refused by the Salon jury in 1866.^[4] The Tragic Actor appeared in Manet's independent exhibition on the avenue de l'Alma in 1867.^[1]

Durand-Ruel bought it from Manet in January 1872. George Vanderbilt purchased it from the dealer on 27 February 1895. It later passed to his wife Edith and reached the National Gallery of Art through her bequest in 1959.^[1]