Le Suicidé

Le Suicidé is a small oil painting by Édouard Manet, completed between 1877 and 1881. The painting has been little studied within Manet's oeuvre, as if art historians have had difficulty finding a place for the work within the development of Manet's art.

The pictorial content of the painting is limited to a man who appears to have just shot himself—still holding a gun while slouched on a bed—and a few pieces of furniture. Manet has removed the trappings of earlier depictions of suicide, and provided next to no narrative content or "moralizing tendency". Ilg (2002) associates the painting with the realism of Gustave Courbet, and notes that Courbet also used a depiction of death in his Burial at Ornans (1849–50), a work that Courbet later indicated marked the beginning of his new artistic approach.

The realism of Le Suicidé has fueled speculation that it depicts an actual suicide, but the subject, if any, is not known. Speculation has concerned an assistant of Manet who committed suicide in Manet's studio more than a decade earlier. Another suicide proposed to be connected with the painting was that of an artist whom Émile Zola had written about in 1866. Recent critics have downplayed these associations.

The Suicide

The Suicide may refer to:

See also

The Suicide (play)

The Suicide is a 1928 play by the Russian playwright Nikolai Erdman. Its performance was proscribed during the Stalinist era and it was only produced in Russia several years after the death of its writer. Today it is regarded as one of the finest plays to have come out of Communist Russia.

Plot

A young, unemployed man, Semyon, believes the answer to his problems is to learn to play the tuba. However, his plan fails and he contemplates suicide. His neighbour, Alexander Petrovich, decides to make money from Semyon's misery by exploiting his intended suicide to several bidders. These bidders planned to exploit Semyon's death to the furtherance of their own individual cause. The Intelligentsia, represented by Aristarkh, is the first to approach him. From this point on, Semyon finds himself being manipulated by various people representing the business world, the arts, the workers, romance, etc. During the course of the play, each character reveals the worst side of their personality, to humorous effect.