Musée d’Orsay · 1860
Portrait of Monsieur and Madame Auguste Manet
Édouard Manet
Manet painted his own parents — his father Auguste, a magistrate, seated stiffly in dark formal clothes, and his mother Eugénie-Désirée standing beside him with a basket of flowers — deliberately in a conservative, old-master style that stood a much better chance with the Salon jury than his more daring work.
Why it matters
Manet painted his own parents — his father Auguste, a magistrate, seated stiffly in dark formal clothes, and his mother Eugénie-Désirée standing beside him with a basket of flowers — deliberately in a conservative, old-master style that stood a much better chance with the Salon jury than his more daring work.
Look closer
Compare the sober, dark palette here with Manet's later paintings — this restrained style, indebted to Spanish masters, was calculated to please the jury rather than provoke them.
The gamble worked: this was one of the two paintings that made up Manet's true public debut at the 1861 Salon, alongside The Spanish Singer, which won an honorable mention.
Value context
ELYIO places this work in an indicative editorial context of €9–16 million.
The museum work is not for sale. This is ELYIO indicative context—not an appraisal, insurance value or offer.