Edouard Manet
French, 1832­1883
Fish (Still Life)
1864
Oil on canvas
73.4 x 92.1 cm
Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Larned Coburn Memorial Collection, 1942.311

Every day as Manet left his studio he walked by a fish market where he may have purchased the seafood that is the subject of this still life. On the table are foods used in making a French fish soup called “bouillabaisse,” next to the copper pot used to cook it. What fruit will the cook use for the bouillabaisse?

Manet painted scenes of everyday life with great naturalism. Here, the freshly-caught fish has stained the tablecloth, and the body still shimmers with life.