19世紀的印象派被學者稱為現代主義的濫觴，其重要性自是不言而喻，印象派創新的技法，以及觀察世界的新方式，重重地在歷史上刻下一道裂痕，而正是這條裂縫開啟了藝術更多元化的道路，同時也影響了音樂、文學、戲劇等眾多領域。作為世界藝文中心代表之巴黎，在19世紀的歷史波濤下，究竟歷經了什麼樣的改變，得以孕育出如此卓越的藝文榮景。當時的人們在食、衣、住、行、育、樂等各方面的景況，呈現何種面貌？其中的人文生態和社會文化如何？當時現代生活的代表性畫家馬奈，同時被尊稱為印象派創始者，他是如何透過其敏銳的觀察力，以畫筆記錄下當時巴黎的城市生活和人文活動，是什麼樣的環境使他揚棄傳統，開闢奚徑，並成為當時藝文界的領導者，以上皆為本論文研討的重點和面相。
Impressionism, the origin of the Modernism, was the most important Art period in the 19th century. The impressionism created a new method to observe the world which influenced greatly in the Art history. It also introduced a new way to turn Art into diversified development. It even had a great impact on the music, literature, drama and other domains at that time. We will inspect how Paris, known for its literary arts, had undergone a major change to develop such a great achievements and how people and society were like back then. Among many artists, Manet, the representative of modern life artist, was known to be the father of the impressionism. We will study how he portrayed the lives and activities in Paris through his keen observations. Furthermore, we will also analysis what kind of environment changes occurred which influenced his art style and made him the leader of literary art of that time.
