Musée d’Orsay · 1880
L'Asperge
Édouard Manet
This tiny painting of a single asparagus stalk is a joke: the collector Charles Ephrussi had commissioned a full still life, "A Bundle of Asparagus," for 800 francs but sent 1,000 by mistake, and Manet painted this extra stalk and mailed it back with a note explaining that one had slipped out of the bundle.
Why it matters
This tiny painting of a single asparagus stalk is a joke: the collector Charles Ephrussi had commissioned a full still life, "A Bundle of Asparagus," for 800 francs but sent 1,000 by mistake, and Manet painted this extra stalk and mailed it back with a note explaining that one had slipped out of the bundle.
Look closer
Look at how much Manet does with almost nothing — a few confident strokes of grey, mauve, and green describe the whole stalk resting on a marble ledge.
The "real" bundle now hangs in a museum in Cologne, while this single, joking asparagus stalk stayed in Paris — a tiny footnote to a much bigger painting.
Value context
ELYIO places this work in an indicative editorial context of €5–9 million.
The museum work is not for sale. This is ELYIO indicative context—not an appraisal, insurance value or offer.