Édouard Manet

M. Guérin, Paris (gift from the artist)
Mme Guérin, Paris (by descent from the above)
Dr Lucien de Montille, Paris (acquired from the above)
Mme Lucien de Montille, Paris (by descent from the above)
Mrs Maria Moser, New York
M. Knoedler & Co., Inc., New York (acquired from the above in 1968)
Louise Bloomingdale & Edgar M. Cullman, New York (acquired from the above in 1969; sale: Christie's, New York, 6th November 2014)
Purchased at the above sale by the present owner

Adolphe Tabarant, Manet et ses œuvres, Paris, 1947, p. 372
Marcello Venturi & Sandra Orienti, L'Opera pittorica di Edouard Manet, Milan, 1967, mentioned p. 112
Denis Rouart & Daniel Wildenstein, Edouard Manet Catalogue raisonné, Lausanne, 1975, vol. I, no. 325, illustrated p. 253

Executed on vellum in a painted wooden tambourine. There is a perspex device which is affixed to the interior of the tambourine with padded hinges that allows for it to be framed. There is a repaired tear (approx. 15cm.) running along the curved edge of the tambourine from the upper centre to the centre right which is also visible from the reverse. Examination under UV light reveals three further spots of retouching to the black pigment to the right of the figure, and some tiny spots of surface paint loss to the figure's shirt. The surface is undulating, most notably at the upper right. This work is in overall good and stable condition.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

The present work is one of seven tambourines with Spanish subjects that Edouard Manet would paint. Here, the matador salutes his audience from a bullring in a pose that recalls that of the barmaid in his most famous works, A Bar at the Folies-Bergère. The similarities between the barmaid in Manet’s composition, echoed here, and the blonde infanta in Velsaquez’s Las Meninas has been pointed out as further proof of the profound affinity between these two artists. The thick and energetic strokes of paint evoke the teeming crowd of the ring. Executed on a vellum tambourine, the work as a whole represents the artist’s lasting infatuation with the Spanish culture.

Manet developed a fascination with Spanish culture and art, which was made possible by the recent dispersion of Spanish paintings in France. King Louis-Phillipe bought a large number of Spanish artworks for his Galerie Espagnole in Paris, and following his death in 1850, its contents were dispersed to various collections around the capitals of Europe.  Thus, Manet had the opportunity to study the Spanish masters in French museums. He was struck by the works of the Spanish artists he saw in the museums. Manet would write to the poet Baudelaire, ‘At last, my dear Baudelaire, I’ve really come to know Velásquez and I tell you he’s the greatest artist there has ever been; I saw 30 or 40 of his canvases in Madrid, portrait and other things, all masterpieces’ (quoted in Manet/Velázquez, The French Taste for Spanish Painting, (exhibition catalogue), The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2003, p. 231)

Manet would visit Spain only once, in 1865, and his subsequent paintings of bullfighting reflect his continuous admiration for seventeenth-century Spanish painting.The bullfight is ‘one of the finest, strangest and most fearful spectacles to be seen,’ Manet wrote to Baudelaire in 1865. ‘I hope when I return to put on canvas the brilliant, shimmering and at once dramatic aspects of the corrida I attended’ (quoted in Manet (exhibition catalogue), The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1983, p. 237).