To-day Manet is considered almost as a classic glory; and the progress
for which he had given the impulse, has been so rapid, that many are
astonished that he should ever have been considered audacious. Sight is
transformed, strife is extinguished, and a large, select public,
familiar with Monet and Renoir, judge Manet almost as a long defunct
initiator. One has to know his admirable life, one has to know well the
incredible inertia of the Salons where he appeared, to give him his full
due. And when, after the acceptance of Impressionism, the unavoidable
reaction will take place, Manet's qualities of solidity, truth and
science will appear such, that he will survive many of those to whom he
has opened the road and facilitated the success at the expense of his
own. It will be seen that Degas and he have, more than the others, and
with less apparent _éclat_, united the gifts which produce durable works
in the midst of the fluctuations of fashion and the caprices of taste
and views. Manet can, at the Louvre or any other gallery, hold his own
in the most crushing surroundings, prove his personal qualities, and
worthily represent a period which he loved.

An enormous amount has been written on him, from Zola's bold and
intelligent pamphlet in 1865, to the recent work by M. Théodore Duret.
Few men have provoked more comments. In an admirable picture, _Hommage à
Manet_, the delicate and perfect painter Fantin-Latour, a friend from
the first hour, has grouped around the artist some of his admirers,
Monet, Renoir, Duranty, Zola, Bazille, and Braquemond. The picture has
to-day a place of honour at the Luxembourg, where Manet is
insufficiently represented by _Olympia_, a study of a woman, and the
_Balcony_. A collection is much to be desired of his lithographs, his
etchings and his pastels, in which he has proved his diversified
mastery, and also of his portraits of famous contemporaries, Zola,