At the Père Lathuille Restaurant

Manet painted this in 1879 in the garden of a real place, the restaurant Père Lathuille in the Batignolles quarter of Paris, set just outside the old city gate where the wine escaped the city tax. A young man leans in close over a woman at her table, one arm along the back of her chair, mid-sentence in a flirtation. The man is the proprietor's own son, and he is wearing Manet's coat, a fine yellow silk the painter lent him for the sitting. The woman's model changed partway through when the first sitter had to stop, which is why the courtship feels caught rather than posed. In the background, near the edge, the old restaurateur himself watches the two of them with a faint smile. It was among the last outdoor scenes of modern Paris life Manet finished before illness slowed him.