Rose in un vaso di vetro

This is close to the last thing Manet painted. By the winter of 1882 he could barely walk. The disease attacking his nervous system had made a full-size canvas impossible, so he worked small, and friends and visitors kept bringing him flowers. He set the bouquets in a plain glass vase on a table and painted them quickly, fresh while they lasted, a few roses with the water and glass caught in a handful of sure strokes. He was 51. In April 1883 his left leg, gone gangrenous, was amputated, and he died days later. He made a dozen or so of these small flower pieces in those final months, working from whatever came through the door.