A garden path in Rueil

In the summer of 1882 Manet was 50 and walking only with a cane. He was being treated for rheumatism, though the real cause was advanced syphilis, and from July to October he rented a house with a garden at Rueil, a village just west of Paris, to rest. Unable to go far, he painted what was around him. He took this path three times, and this is the only version he signed, in the lower right corner, a sign that he thought of it as finished. The broad, pale path comes in from the lower left and bends away into the bushes, sunny patches in sandy tones, shadows in blue. Through the leaves on the right you catch the yellow and red wall of the house. Manet died the following April. At the sale of his studio in February 1884 the canvas was bought by Jean-Baptiste Faure, the opera baritone who had been collecting his work for years.