Édouard Manet (1832-1883) was a Parisian, the son of a government worker. He was friends with the Impressionist painters, and the painter Berthe Morisot married his brother Eugène. However, he preferred the naturalist style, and was influenced by Diego Velázquez and Franz Hals. Some of his most famous works created a scandal because of their eroticism : Luncheon on the Grass (1862) and Olympia (1863). His last major painting was A Bar at the Folies-Bergère (1881-82), a work that was sympathetic to a barmaid in the bohemian world of Montmartre.
