The paint fights of eight great artists

When Edgar Degas died in 1917, a stunning trove of works by Edouard Manet — eight paintings, 14 drawings and 60 prints — was discovered in his studio. There, too, was a portrait of Manet and his wife Suzanne, painted by Degas 50 years earlier. But its right-hand third was missing. For some reason, Manet had put a knife through the canvas. The duo’s relationship is one of four ‘friendly rivalries’ considered by Sebastian Smee, in his new book (Matisse vs Picasso, Pollock vs de Kooning and Bacon vs Freud being the others). In each case, Smee reckons, competition between the pair changed the course of modern art.
Read more: http://www.spectator.co.uk/2016/10/the-paint-fights-of-eight-great-artists/?source=Snapzu