Manet came from a well-to-do Parisian family and became at ease in society. He studied with one of the most respected Parisian masters, Thomas Couture (1815- 79), and he consciously sought to make his reputation at the official Parisian Salons. He longed for the approval of the cultural and political establishment of the day, but his modern approach met with disapproval. Constant rejection and harsh criticism so wore him down that in 1871 he suffered a nervous breakdown. Nevertheless, his work came to inspire impressionism and had far-reaching influence on the development of modern art. Manet was influenced primarily by Dutch painter Frans Hals and Spanish artists Diego Velázquez and Francisco José de Goya.

In 1863 his painting "Le déjeuner sur l'herbe" (Musée d'Orsay, Paris) was shown at the Salon des Refusés, a new exhibition place opened by Napoleon III following protests by artists rejected at the official Salon. Hailed by young painters as their leader, Manet became the central figure in the dispute between the academic and rebellious art factions of his time.

Manet became the rallying point for a group of artists at the Café Guerbois, out of which grew the Impressionist movement. He staged a one-man show at the Exposition of 1867, but with little success. The Franco-Prussian war intervened and then in 1873 he scored a triumph with a painting titled "Bon Bock". His style was already changing toward the fresh palette of the Impressionists. At this time his work also shows the clipped composition of the Impressionists that seems to snatch a fragment out of real life. However, his forms remained fairly tactile, and in subject and treatment he owed the most to Degas rather than to the other Impressionists. Scenes in restaurants and bistros resulted in the great masterpiece of his career, "The Bar at the Folies Bergères" (London), exhibited the year before his death. In this he retreated somewhat from his Impressionism to the earlier pursuit of the delectable in painting. That the painting, and all art, was to be enjoyed and not understood, Manet showed by signing and dating the painting on a champagne label, like a vintage. He died in agony from syphilis, aged 51. In 1884 a successful memorial exhibition and auction sale was held and in 1890 another of his paintings, "Olympia", was bought by donations and presented to the French state.