
Pulitzer Prize-winner Smee reveals how artistic rivalries - not solitude - birthed modern masterpieces. When Manet slashed Degas's portrait of him, it wasn't spite but transformation. What creative breakthroughs might emerge from your most challenging relationships?
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When Edgar Degas proudly presented a portrait to his friend Edouard Manet, he couldn't have anticipated what would happen next. Some time later, visiting Manet's studio, Degas discovered his painting had been slashed with a knife-right through the face of Manet's wife Suzanne. The culprit? Manet himself. Stunned, Degas took his damaged painting and left "without saying goodbye," returning a small still life Manet had given him with a terse note: "Monsieur, I am returning your Plums." This shocking act of violence between friends perfectly captures the volatile, complex relationships at the heart of artistic rivalry. Sebastian Smee's exploration of four transformative artistic relationships reveals that the most productive artistic rivalries aren't between sworn enemies but between close friends magnetically drawn to each other. These relationships feature a peculiar combination of intimacy and ambivalence, making them inherently volatile and psychologically complex. Each pairing involves different temperaments at pivotal moments in their careers-typically one artist possesses an enviable fluency while the other feels creatively stuck. Their encounters prove revelatory, opening new possibilities and ways of working that ultimately transform both artists' work.