famous
_Olympia_ which occasioned so much fury, appears to us to-day as a
transition work. It is neither a masterpiece, nor an emotional work, but
a technical experiment, very significant for the epoch during which it
appeared in French art, and this canvas, which is very inferior to
Manet's fine works, may well be considered as a date of evolution. He
was doubtful about exhibiting it, but Baudelaire decided him and wrote
to him on this occasion these typical remarks: "You complain about
attacks? But are you the first to endure them? Have you more genius than
Chateaubriand and Wagner? They were not killed by derision. And, in
order not to make you too proud, I must tell you, that they are models
each in his own way and in a very rich world, whilst you are only the
first in the decrepitude of your art."

[Illustration: MANET

OLYMPIA]

Thus it must be firmly established that from this moment Manet passed as
an innovator, years before Impressionism existed or was even thought of.
This is an important point: it will help to clear up the twofold origin
of the movement which followed. To his realism, to his return to
composition in the modern spirit, and to the simplifying of planes and
values, Manet owed these attacks, though at that time his colour was
still sombre and entirely influenced by Hals, Goya and Courbet. From
that time the artist became a chief. As his friends used to meet him at
an obscure Batignolles cafe, the cafe Guerbois (still existing), public
derision baptized these meetings with the name of "L'Ecole des
Batignolles." Manet then exhibited the _Angels at the Tomb of Christ_, a
souvenir of the Venetians; _Lola de Valence_, commented upon by
Baudelaire in a quatrain which can be found in the _Fleurs du Mal_; the
_Episode d'un combat de taureaux_ (dissatisfied with this picture, he
cut out the dead toreador in the foreground, and burnt the rest). The
_Acteur tragique_ (portrait of Rouviere in Hamlet) and the _Jesus
insulte_ followed, and then came the _Gitanos_, _L'Enfant a l'Epee_, and
the portrait of Mme. Manet. This series of works is admirable. It is
here where he reveals himself as a splendid colourist, whose design is
as vigorous as the technique is masterly. In these works one does not
think of looking for anything but the witchery of technical strength;
and the abundant wealth of his temperament is simply dazzling. Manet
reveals himself as the direct heir of the great Spaniards, more
interesting