Bildnis von Monsieur und Madame Auguste Manet

When Manet painted his parents in 1860, he was not yet the man who would scandalize Paris. That came a few years later, with Olympia. Here he is still a young painter trying to get through the front door of the official Salon, and this sober double portrait is how he did it. His father, Auguste, a former magistrate, sits heavy and stern. His mother, Eugénie, stands behind him with a basket of wool and flowers, leaning toward him. The Salon accepted it in 1861 and gave Manet an honorable mention, one of his first real successes. The family kept the picture for over a century before it went to the Musée d'Orsay.