A Studio at Les Batignolles

1870

Oil on canvas, 204 × 273.5 cm. Musée d'Orsay, Paris

Young painters and writers gather around Manet at his easel. Shown at the 1870 Salon, it presents the future Impressionists as serious, respectable men.

Fantin paints the circle as a group of friends. Monet and Renoir, both here, would later exhibit together, and showing as a group became how the Impressionists made their name.
Named for Les Batignolles, the Paris district where Manet and several younger painters lived.
Among the men: Manet seated, Renoir in a hat, Zola, Bazille standing tall, and Monet.
Look for a statuette of Minerva, a sign of respect for ancient art, and a Japanese-style pot, a sign of taste for Japanese art.
The Musée du Luxembourg acquired it in 1892.

Group portraits of artists were a way to announce a shared cause in public. Within months, the Franco-Prussian War scattered this circle.

Image: Wikimedia Commons · Public domain