, more spontaneous, and freer than Courbet. The _Rouviere_ is
as fine a symphony in grey and black as the noblest portraits by
Bronzino, and there is probably no Goya more powerful than the _Toreador
tue_. Manet's altogether classic descent appears here undeniably. There
is no question yet of Impressionism, and yet Monet and Renoir are
already painting, Monet has exhibited at the _Salon des Refuses_, but
criticism sees and attacks nobody but Manet. This great individuality
who overwhelmed the Academy with its weak allegories, was the butt of
great insults and the object of great admiration. Banished from the
Salons, he collected fifty pictures in a room in the Avenue de l'Alma
and invited the public thither. In 1868 appeared the portrait of Emile
Zola, in 1860 the _Dejeuner_, works which are so powerful, that they
enforced admiration in spite of all hostility. In the Salon of 1870 was
shown the portrait of Eva Gonzales, the charming pastellist and pupil of
Manet, and the impressive _Execution of Maximilian at Queretaro_. Manet
was at the apogee of his talent, when the Franco-German war broke out.
At the age of thirty-eight he had put forth a considerable amount of
work, tried himself in all styles, severed his individuality from the
slavish admiration of the old masters, and attained his own mastery. And
now he wanted to expand, and, in joining Monet, Renoir and Degas,
interpret in his own way the Impressionist theory.

[Illustration: MANET

THE WOMAN WITH THE PARROT]

The _Fight of the Kearsage and the Alabama_, a magnificent sea-piece,
bathed in sunlight, announced this transformation in his work, as did
also a study, a _Garden_, painted, I believe, in 1870, but exhibited
only after the crisis of the terrible year. At that time the Durand-Ruel
Gallery bought a considerable series by the innovator, and was imitated
by some select art-lovers. The _Musique aux Tuileries_ and the _Bal de
l'Opera_ had, some years before, pointed towards the evolution of this
great artist in the direction of _plein-air_ painting. The _Bon Bock_,
in which the very soul of Hals is revived, and the grave _Liseur_, sold
immediately at Vienne, were the two last pledges given by the artist to
his old admirers; these two pictures had moreover a splendid success,
and the _Bon Bock_, popularised by an engraving, was hailed by the very
men who had most unjustly attacked the author of the portrait of Mme.
Morisot, a French masterpiece. But already M