Asparagus

The delightful story of this painting is well known: Manet sold Charles Ephrussi A Bunch of Asparagus for eight hundred francs. But Ephrussi sent him a thousand francsand Manetwho was a master of elegance and witpainted this asparagus and sent it to him with a note saying: "There was one missing from your bunch".

The "mother" canvas was painted on a black backgroundrather like the Dutch still lifes of the17th century. HereManet creates a very subtle interplay between the mauves and greys of the asparagus and the colour of the marble on which it lies. He paints freelyand purely for the pleasuredemonstrating in this spontaneous work his formidable skillhis perfect taste and his humour.

"This is not a still-life like the others"wrote Georges Bataille"although stillit isat the same timelively".

Thusincreasingly throughout the 1880sManet produced small still life paintings with a few flowers or a limited number of fruits. It was as if he was producing extractsexamples of the pure essence of painting. Often they were sent to friendspersonal gifts that always contained humorous asides or signs of affection and tenderness.