Charismatic Yong Joon - Manet Series I

Dear sisters ..... I'd like to organize my little home a bit and include some of my past writings. This is my very first art series on Manet posted in Quilt back in July 2006. I just want to include it here for record purposes. Hehe, if you have read it before, please don't mind me :) Here it goes .....


I am recently studying a rare collection of illustrated letters by French Impressionist painter Edouard Manet. As I peruse each illustration, my heart is overflowed with unspeakable joy and tender emotions. The circumstances surrounding these letters remind me so much of our connections to our dear Yong Joon. I’d like to invite you to join me to stroll down a romantic journey of “Charismatic Yong Joon”, complemented by Manet’s sensuous illustrative writings.

Manet had a genuine admiration for refinement and elegance, an aspect of his personality that was evident in his tasteful attire, his mannerism, courtliness and wit. He had many female acquaintances who admired him, and he reciprocated their affection by writing beautiful letters to them. The text is generally brief touching on topics about fashion, art, social life and relationships, but the enhancements with water-coloured flowers transcend an air of warmth and sincerity. Among the flowers adorned the letters are garden and briar roses, carnations, periwinkles, of particular beauty is its lightness and the way it meshes with the writings. These letters brought tremendous pleasure and tender feelings to their female recipients and constitute some of the most lyrical pages of nineteenth century artistic sensibility.

I cannot resist drawing a parallel comparison between Manet and his female admirers to our dear Yong Joon with us. Throughout all these years, numerous messages were extended to our prince in forms of articles, artworks, music, videos of varying styles and themes - be it sentimental, romantic, powerful or humorous, all subconsciously desiring responses from our prince. Occasionally we received pictures of him revealing himself in the most alluring and demure fashion – we gratefully accepted this as our precious reward from him. Dear sisters, I herein attempt to complement these two sensual subjects – Yong Joon and Manet’s illustrative writings. Let us imagine the way our prince answers to each and every one of us!


Our handsome prince charming is smiling to his family,

gosijo's translated script - only fragments are legible
3rd & 4th line : ‘mon séjour prolongé à Bellevue’ - ‘my extended stay in Bellevue’
8th line : ‘le mois d’Octobre’ - ‘the month of October’


he is thinking about the precious times we spent together …..



he is dreaming about the good times when we meet again …..

gosijo's translated script - only fragments are legible
1st line : ‘Chère petite (?) Demoiselle’ - ‘Dear little Miss’
Last line : donner hier soir de vos - It seems as if Manet is saying that someone else ‘gave me last night’ news about the young woman he’s writing to


he desires to paint out his beautiful sensuous thoughts,



and contemplates to compose a poetic passage to serenade us!

gosijo's translated script - This one seems to have been written on the 20th of October (abbreviated as 8bre since ‘octo’ means 8) and it is possible that Manet, given he was soon due to return to his regular home, is reminding a certain Mademoiselle about a lunch date she had meant to issue. I can’t be sure if Manet’s use of the 1st person plural is meant to include others or just him.

The First six lines are very clear : ‘Chère Mademoiselle,Vous nous aviezpromis de venir nousdemander à déjeuner avantnotre retour. L’avez-vousoublié et ne nous donnerez-vous pas…’ - ‘Dear Miss,You had promisedto come and invite us for lunch beforeour return. Have you (perhaps)forgotten and will you notgive us…’

I have selected 15 beautiful illustrations from Manet’s collection to share with you. If you like these artworks, I hope to post them in various groupings in the future as I attempt to match (at a snail pace) thousands of Yong Joon’s pictures to complement the mood of each painting (and vice versa). Hope you enjoy this first of the Manet series!


Acknowledgements :
1. Thanks to bb for the abundance choice of pictures.
2. Thanks to liezle for the suggestion of links to the pictures.

References :
1. Manet The Still-Life Paintings, George Mauner, The American Federation of Arts. 2000
2. Impressionism Art, Leisure & Parisian Society, Robert L. Herbert, Yale University Press, New Haven & London. 1988
3. Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, James N. Wood, The Art Institute of Chicago. 2000
4. Impressionism, Belinda Thomson and Michael Howard, Bison Books Corp. 1988