Portrait of Antonin Proust

The man in this portrait was Manet's oldest friend. Edouard Manet and Antonin Proust met as schoolboys in Paris in 1844 and stayed close until Manet died in 1883. Proust was a writer and politician rather than a painter, and the friendship mattered to Manet's career in a concrete way. In 1881 Proust was made France's Minister of Fine Arts, and one of the first things he did was arrange for Manet to receive the Legion of Honour, the official recognition Manet had wanted for years and got only two years before his death. Manet painted him with the loose, quick brush his critics still complained was unfinished. The canvas itself had a hard later life. It was looted during the Second World War and only recovered afterward, which is why it now hangs at the Musee d'Orsay in the state's care.