The Luncheon in the Studio
by MANET, Edouard, Oil on canvas, 120 x 154 cm
The Luncheon in the Studio is perhaps Manet’s finest painting in this period. It is a portrait of L�on Leenhoff, said to have been born to Manet and his future wife Suzanne Leenhoff before they were married. The young man was sixteen years old when thus represented, and his mother continued to present him as her younger brother. The name of Vermeer has been cited in relation to this picture, in which Manet contrived an elegant harmony between the distribution of light and the delicately contrasted yellows and blacks.