The Bohemian

1862-1867

Edouard Manet

The pose of this young man with a bent wrist recalls Renaissance painting and endows the work with a touch of nobility. Manet initially depicted him with a family (The Gypsies) before separating him to concentrate on the essential: a lively, resolute young Gypsy who seems to challenge the viewer. His rags of blue, white, red and yellow stand out against the blue of the sky with a boldness criticized by some journalists in 1863. Poor but free and his own master, this figure epitomises the artists of the bohemian Montmartre district of Paris.