Édouard Manet
Manet's studio through the 1860s, where Emile Zola sat for his portrait in 1868. The street was later renamed rue Mederic and renumbered, so the modern address is a conversion rather than a verified identification.
81 rue Guyot (now rue Médéric)
Still standing
Outside only
Someone else
The studio Édouard Manet worked in through the 1860s, where Émile Zola sat for his portrait. The street has since been renamed rue Médéric and renumbered, so the modern address is a conversion rather than a certainty.
- rue Médéric, 75017 Paris
- Manet's studio through the 1860s
The place, briefly
This was Édouard Manet's studio through the decade that made him famous and disliked in roughly equal measure. The Déjeuner sur l'herbe was rejected and shown at the Salon des Refusés in 1863; Olympia was accepted in 1865 and provoked something close to a riot of ridicule. Manet, who wanted official recognition and never stopped submitting to the Salon, spent the 1860s being told by the press that he could not paint.
Émile Zola was the significant exception. Zola defended Manet in print when very few people would, and Manet painted his portrait here in 1868 — the sitter surrounded by evidence of the argument, with a print of Olympia on the wall behind him. The picture is now in the Musée d'Orsay.
The address needs care. Manet's studio is recorded at 81 rue Guyot. The rue Guyot was afterwards renamed rue Médéric and its numbering changed, and the modern equivalent usually given is 8 rue Médéric. That correspondence is the standard reading but it is a reconstruction, so this record keeps the historic name and treats the coordinate as approximate.
Key facts
- 81 rue Guyot
- rue Médéric — renamed and renumbered, so the conversion is approximate
- Manet's studio through the 1860s
- The portrait of Émile Zola, 1868
- Private — exterior only, and the exact building is uncertain
Timeline
Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe is rejected by the Salon and shown at the Salon des Refusés.
Olympia is shown at the Salon and attacked.
Zola sits for his portrait in the rue Guyot studio.
On the map
Questions before you go
Where exactly was Manet's rue Guyot studio?
At 81 rue Guyot. The street is now the rue Médéric and was renumbered, and the modern equivalent usually cited is 8 rue Médéric — but that is a conversion rather than a confirmed identification, so it should be treated as approximate.
Where was Manet's portrait of Zola painted?
In this studio, in 1868. The painting is in the Musée d'Orsay and includes a print of Olympia on the wall behind the sitter.
Why did Zola matter to Manet?
He defended Manet in print through the years when the press was treating him as a joke, at a point when almost no established critic would.
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