Boy with a Sword

Inscription: Signed (lower left): Manet

the artist, Paris (1861–1871 or 1872; deposited with Théodore Duret, Paris, September 1870–71; sold in or by January 1872 [artist's tabbed notebook] for Fr 1,200 to Febvre); [Alexis-Joseph Febvre, Paris, 1872; sold on January 6 or 8 for Fr 1,500 to Durand-Ruel]; [Durand-Ruel, Paris, from 1872; stock no. 930; held as collateral by (Charles?) Edwards, Paris]; Alfred Edwards (son of Charles Edwards), Paris (until 1881; sale, Hôtel Drouot, February 24, no. 39, for Fr 9,100, to Feder); Jules Feder, Paris (1881; on deposit with Durand-Ruel, February 25, deposit no. 3080; sold on June 28 to Durand-Ruel); [Durand-Ruel, Paris, 1881; stock no. 1135; sold on June 28 for Fr 10,000 to J. Alden Weir for Davis]; Erwin Davis, New York (1881–89; his sale, Ortgies & Co., Chickering Hall, New York, March 19–20, no. 141, bought in at $6,700 by E. R. Leland for Davis and withdrawn from sale; given with 89.21.3 and 89.21.1 [also withdrawn] to The Met)

Paris. Rue de Choiseul. 1861–62, no catalogue? [see Wolff 1886].

Bordeaux. Galerie de la société des amis des arts. "Salon des amis des arts de Bordeaux," 1862, no. 438 [see Dussol 1997].

Paris. Galerie Martinet. "Exposition de tableaux anciens et modernes," March 1–April 1863, no catalogue? [see Jamot and Wildenstein 1932].

Brussels. location unknown. "Exposition générale des beaux-arts, salon triennale," July 29–September 28, 1863, no. 755 [see Jamot and Wildenstein 1932].

Paris. Avenue de l'Alma. "Tableaux de M. Édouard Manet," May 1867, no. 4 (as "L'enfant à l'epée").

Marseilles. Société artistique des Bouches-du-Rhône. December 1868–?, no catalogue? [see Manet 1869].

New York. National Academy of Design. "Pedestal Fund Art Loan Exhibition," December 3, 1883–January 1, 1884, no. 153 (lent by Erwin Davis).

New York. National Academy of Design. "Works in Oil and Pastel by the Impressionists of Paris," May 25–June 30, 1886, no. 303 (lent by Erwin Davis).

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Temporary Exhibition," April 1906, no. 20.

London. Royal Academy of Arts. "French Art: 1200–1900," January 4–March 12, 1932, no. 423 [commemorative catalogue, no. 422, pl. 117].

Philadelphia. Pennsylvania Museum of Art. "Manet and Renoir," November 29, 1933–January 1, 1934, no catalogue [see Pennsylvania Museum Bulletin 29 (December 1933), p. 17].

Honolulu Academy of Arts. "Four Centuries of European Painting," December 8, 1949–January 29, 1950, no. 23.

Art Gallery of Toronto. "Fifty Paintings by Old Masters," April 21–May 21, 1950, no. 23.

Hempstead, N. Y. Hofstra College. "Metropolitan Museum Masterpieces," June 26–September 1, 1952, no. 39.

Utica, N.Y. Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute. "Picture of the Month," October 5–26, 1952, no catalogue?

Des Moines Art Center. "Masterpieces of Portrait and Figure Painting," November 5, 1952–February 1, 1953, no catalogue.

Haus der Kunst München. "München 1869–1958: Aufbruch zur Modernen Kunst," June 21–October 5, 1958, no. 79 [this work was not included in the 1869 exhibition that the present show commemorated].

New York. Wildenstein & Co., Inc. "One Hundred Years of Impressionism: A Tribute to Durand-Ruel," April 2–May 9, 1970, no. 1.

Indianapolis Museum of Art. "Treasures from the Metropolitan," October 25, 1970–January 3, 1971, no. 67.

Tokyo National Museum. "Treasured Masterpieces of The Metropolitan Museum of Art," August 10–October 1, 1972, no. 92.

Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art. "Treasured Masterpieces of The Metropolitan Museum of Art," October 8–November 26, 1972, no. 92.

Sydney. Art Gallery of New South Wales. "Modern Masters: Manet to Matisse," April 10–May 11, 1975, no. 59.

Melbourne. National Gallery of Victoria. "Modern Masters: Manet to Matisse," May 28–June 22, 1975, no. 59.

New York. Museum of Modern Art. "Modern Masters: Manet to Matisse," August 4–September 1, 1975, no. 59.

Paris. Galeries nationales du Grand Palais. "Manet, 1832–1883," April 22–August 1, 1983, no. 14.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Manet, 1832–1883," September 10–November 27, 1983, no. 14.

Stockholm. Nationalmuseum. "Manet i närbild," February 7–June 11, 1985, no. 59.

Southampton, N.Y. Parrish Art Museum. "In Support of Liberty: European Paintings at the 1883 Pedestal Fund Art Loan Exhibition," June 29–September 1, 1986, no. 47.

New York. National Academy of Design. "In Support of Liberty: European Paintings at the 1883 Pedestal Fund Art Loan Exhibition," September 18–December 7, 1986, no. 47.

Naples. Museo di Capodimonte. "Capolavori Impressionisti dei Musei Americani," December 3, 1986–February 1, 1987, no. 22.

Milan. Pinacoteca di Brera. "Capolavori Impressionisti dei Musei Americani," March 4–May 10, 1987, no. 22.

Leningrad [St. Petersburg]. State Hermitage Museum. "From Delacroix to Matisse," March 15–May 10, 1988, no. 12.

Moscow. Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts. "From Delacroix to Matisse," June 10–July 30, 1988, no. 12.

Fort Lauderdale. Museum of Art. "Corot to Cézanne: 19th Century French Paintings from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," December 22, 1992–April 11, 1993, no catalogue.

Paris. Musée d'Orsay. "Manet/Velázquez: La manière espagnole au XIXe siècle," September 16, 2002–January 12, 2003, no. 73.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Manet/Velázquez: The French Taste for Spanish Painting," March 4–June 29, 2003, no. 133.

Madrid. Museo Nacional del Prado. "Manet en el Prado," October 13, 2003–February 8, 2004, no. 24.

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. "The Masterpieces of French Painting from The Metropolitan Museum of Art: 1800–1920," February 4–May 6, 2007, no. 56.

Paris. Musée d'Orsay. "Manet, inventeur du Moderne," April 5–July 17, 2011, no. 26.

Paris. Musée du Luxembourg. "Paul Durand-Ruel: le Pari de l'Impressionnisme," October 9, 2014–February 8, 2015, no. 25.

London. National Gallery. "Inventing Impressionism: Paul Durand-Ruel and the Modern Art Market," March 4–May 31, 2015, no. 20.

Philadelphia Museum of Art. "Discovering the Impressionists: Paul Durand-Ruel and the New Painting," June 24–September 13, 2015, no. 20.

Vienna. Kunsthistorisches Museum. "The Shape of Time," March 6–July 8, 2018, unnumbered cat.

Brisbane. Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art. "European Masterpieces from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York," June 12–October 17, 2021, unnumbered cat.

Osaka. Osaka City Museum of Fine Arts. "European Masterpieces from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York," November 13, 2021–January 16, 2022.

Tokyo. National Art Center. "European Masterpieces from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York," February 9–May 30, 2022.

Paris. Musée d'Orsay. "Manet / Degas," March 28–July 23, 2023, unnumbered cat. (colorpl. 18).

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Manet / Degas," September 24, 2023–January 7, 2024, unnumbered cat. (colorpl. 44).

Ernest Chesneau. "L'art contemporain." L'artiste 1 (April 1, 1863), p. 149.

Zacharie Astruc. Le salon de 1863 (May 20, 1863) [reprinted in Ref. Moreau-Nélaton 1926, vol. 1, p. 51].

Edouard Manet. Letter to Monsieur Martinet. [1863] [published in Étienne Moreau-Nélaton, "Manet: Raconté par lui-même," vol. 1, Paris, 1926, p. 45], gives the price of this painting as Fr 1,000 but says that he is willing to sell it for Fr 800.

Ernest Chesneau. "Salon de 1865." Le constitutionnel (May 16, 1865), p. 1.

Théodore Duret. Les peintres français en 1867. Paris, 1867, p. 111.

Emile Zola. "Une nouvelle manière en peinture: Édouard Manet." Revue du XIXe siècle, 8e sér., 4 (January 1, 1867) [reprinted in Émile Zola, "Le bon combat: De Courbet aux impressionnistes," Paris, 1974, pp. 85, 88, 141 n. 104], praises this picture highly and comments that the influence of Spanish painters can be seen; predicts that it will be one of the successes of the exhibition.

E. Spuller. "M. Édouard Manet et sa peinture." Le nain jaune (June 9, 1867) [see Ref. Rouart and Wildenstein 1975].

Paul Mantz. "Salon de 1868, II." L'illustration (June 6, 1868), p. 362 [translated and reprinted in George Heard Hamilton, "Manet and His Critics," New Haven, 1954, p. 120].

Edouard Manet. Letter to Émile Zola. [early 1869] [published and translated in Juliet Wilson-Bareau, "Correspondence & Conversation, Manet by Himself: Paintings, Pastels, Prints & Drawings," London, 1991, p. 49], says that he sent this painting to the Société artistique des Bouches-du-Rhône.

A. Maire. "Revue de l'exposition de la société artistique. À Madame . . . troisième lettre." Courrier de Marseille (January 21, 1869), p. 2 [see Ref. Wilson-Bareau 2003].

Edouard Manet. Letter to T. Duret. September 16, 1870 [published in A. Tabarant, "Manet et ses œuvres," Paris, 1947, pp. 182–83], asks Duret to store this painting for him during the siege.

Théodore Duret. Letter to Édouard Manet. September 16, 1870 [published in A. Tabarant, "Manet et ses œuvres," Paris, 1947, p. 183], acknowledges that this work was deposited in his gallery for safe-keeping, but belongs to Manet.

Armand Silvestre. La renaissance litteraire 1 (1872), p. 179, comments that in its style it equals the portraits of Velázquez.

Edouard Manet. Memorandum of Paintings Sold to Durand-Ruel. [January–February 1872] [published and translated in Ref. Wilson-Bareau 1991, p. 163], notes that this picture was sold to Fèvre [sic] for Fr 1,200 .

Armand Silvestre. Galerie Durand-Ruel, recueil d'estampes, gravées à l'eau-forte. Paris, 1873, pp. 24–25, pl. LVI (engraving by Braquemond [sic]).

Junius. "M. Édouard Manet." Le Gaulois (April 25, 1876) [see Ref. Rouart and Wildenstein 1975].

Edouard Manet. Letter to Marx. [1881], requests that he ask 'Gill' to note that Weir had just purchased this picture from Durand-Ruel.

Albert Wolff. "Edouard Manet." Le Figaro (May 1, 1883), p. 1.

Jacques de Biez. "Edouard Manet." Le Voltaire (May 2, 1883), p. 2, remarks that Manet definitively became the “master of himself” when he “gave up the outlined features and the black manner” of Spanish-inspired works like this one.

Edmond Bazire. Manet. Paris, 1884, pp. 54–56, 139, identifies the sitter as Léon Leenhoff, who also appears in the "Déjeuner sur l'herbe" (Musée d'Orsay, Paris) and "Enfant au plateau" (Phillips Collection, Washington).

Jacques de Biez. Édouard Manet. Paris, 1884, pp. 34, 57.

Paul Mantz. "Les oeuvres de Manet." Le temps (January 16, 1884), p. 3.

Albert Wolff. La Capitale de l'art. 2nd. ed. Paris, 1886, pp. 220, 227, notes that it was exhibited at "cercle artisitique de la rue de Choiseul".

"A Late Art Exhibition." World 26 (May 25, 1886), p. 8, notes that it was among the twenty-three works added to the American Art Association exhibition when it transferred from the American Art Galleries to the National Academy of Design on May 25, 1886.

E[mile]. Durand-Gréville. "La Peinture aux États-Unis: Les Galeries privées (1er article)." Gazette des beaux-arts, 2nd ser., 36 (July 1887), p. 74, lists it in the collection of Erwin Davis.

"Prices at the Erwin Davis Sale." Evening Sun (March 21, 1889), p. 3, lists its sale price in the Davis sale as $6,700 dollars.

"Impressionists and Imitators." The Collector 1 (November 15, 1889), p. 11.

Antonin Proust. "Édouard Manet: Souvenirs." La revue blanche 12 (February–May 1897), pp. 174, 314, 420, 426.

Arthur J. Eddy. "Édouard Manet, Painter." Brush and Pencil 1 (February 1898), pp. 137–38, 140, praises it highly, calling it one of Manet's finest.

William Sharp. "The Art Treasures of America (Concluded.)." Living Age, 7th ser., 1 (December 3, 1898), p. 606.

Arthur Hoeber. The Treasures of The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York. New York, 1899, p. 90.

Théodore Duret. Histoire d'Édouard Manet et de son œuvre. Paris, 1902, pp. 19, 203, no. 41, mentions that there is a small reproduction of this work by Manet in the Gérard collection, Paris.

Etienne Moreau-Nélaton. Manuscrit de l'œuvre d'Édouard Manet, peinture et pastels. [1906], unpaginated, no. 36 [Département des Estampes, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris], dates it 1861.

Roger Fry. Letter to his wife, Helen Fry. March 2, 1906 [published in Denys Sutton, ed., "Letters of Roger Fry," New York, 1972, vol. 1, p. 255].

Roger Fry. Letter to Robert W. De Forest. June 16, 1906 [published in Denys Sutton, ed., "Letters of Roger Fry," New York, 1972, vol. 1, p. 265].

Frank Fowler. "The Field of Art: Modern Foreign Paintings at the Metropolitan Museum, Some Examples of the French School." Scribner's Magazine 44 (September 1908), pp. 381–82, ill.

Emil Waldmann. "Französische Bilder in Amerikanischem Privatbesitz, Part 1." Kunst und Künstler 9 (November 1910), pp. 91, 96, ill., dates it 1861–62 in the caption for the illustration and 1862 in the text.

Paul Durand-Ruel. Mémoires de Paul Durand-Ruel. 1911–12 [published in Lionello Venturi, "Les archives de l'impressionnisme," Paris, 1939, vol. 2, pp. 166, 192, 211].

Jean Laran and Georges Le Bas. Manet. Paris, 1912, pp. 23–24, pl. IV, date it 1861, noting that it was exhibited in Paris then.

Julius Meier-Graefe. Édouard Manet. Munich, 1912, p. 64 n. 1, p. 131 n. 4, p. 202 n. 1, pp. 313, 313.

Théodore Duret. Manet and the French Impressionists. 2nd ed. [1st ed. 1910]. London, 1912, pp. 28, 214, 224, no. 41, recounts that he saw this work in the Davis collection.

Antonin Proust. Edouard Manet. Paris, 1913, pp. 120, 136, 152, 154.

Paul Jamot. "La collection Camondo au Musée du Louvre: Les peintures et les dessins (deuxième article)." Gazette des beaux-arts, 4th ser., 11 (June 1914), pp. 442, 444, comments that this is one of the first works of Manet's Spanish period.

Katharine Metcalf Roof. The Life and Art of William Merritt Chase. New York, 1917, p. 94, notes that Chase told Weir that Durand-Ruel had this painting and another by Manet for sale in their gallery.

Duncan Phillips. Julian Alden Weir: An Appreciation of His Life and Works. New York, 1921, p. 21, notes that Erwin Davis commissioned Weir to buy Impressionist paintings for him in Paris, including this one.

Léon Rosenthal. "Manet et l'Espagne." Gazette des beaux-arts, 5th ser., 12 (1925), p. 212, remarks that this picture recalls the works of Velázquez and Zurbarán.

J.-E. Blanche. Manet. London, 1925, pp. 31, 42, fig. 4, dates it between 1867 and 1870.

Etienne Moreau-Nélaton. Manet raconté par lui-même. Paris, 1926, vol. 1, pp. 45, 51–53, fig. 48; vol. 2, p. 90, dates it 1861; reprints a letter from Manet to M. Martinet and Ref. Astruc 1863; identifies the sitter as Léon, the son of Suzanne Leenhoff.

Paul Jamot. "Manet, 'Le fifre' et Victorine Meurend." Revue de l'art ancien et moderne 51 (January–May 1927), pp. 33–34.

A. Tabarant. Manet, histoire catalographique. Paris, 1931, pp. 68–69, no. 42, remarks that Manet made two engravings of this, one with the child turned to the right and one reversed, in 1862; notes that the work that Duret [see Ref. 1902], no. 42, had listed as a small copy of this picture by Manet, is in fact a copy by another hand.

Charles Léger. Édouard Manet. Paris, 1931, p. 7, dates it 1861.

Paul Jamot and Georges Wildenstein. Manet. Paris, 1932, vol. 1, pp. 35–36, 119, no. 42; vol. 2, fig. 35.

"Notes biographiques." L'amour de l'art 13 (May 1932), p. 146, erroneously list it as being in the Salon of 1861, where Manet made his debut.

Germain Bazin. "Manet et la tradition." L'amour de l'art 13 (May 1932), pp. 155, 160.

Paul Colin. Édouard Manet. Paris, 1932, p. 21.

E. Lambert. "Manet et l'Espagne." Gazette des beaux-arts, 6th ser., 9 (June 1933), p. 372, notes the influence of Murillo.

Helen Comstock. "The Connoisseur in America: A Child Portrait by Manet." Connoisseur 97 (May 1936), p. 282, compares it to Manet's portrait of Line Campineau as a child (Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City).

Walter Pach. Queer Thing, Painting: Forty Years in the World of Art. New York, 1938, pp. 9–10, sees the influence of Velázquez and relates comments about it by William Merritt Chase.

Lionello Venturi. Les Archives de l'impressionnisme. Paris, 1939, vol. 2, pp. 166, 192, 211, publishes Paul Durand-Ruel's account of the sale of this picture [see Ref. Durand-Ruel 1911–12].

Hans Graber. Édouard Manet nach Eigenen und Fremden Zeugnissen. Basel, 1941, pp. 82, 297, 309, reprints lists of works in Manet's 1867 exhibition.

Preface by Edward Alden Jewell in French Impressionists and Their Contemporaries Represented in American Collections. New York, 1944, p. 83, ill. (color).

Marcel Guérin. L'œuvre gravé de Manet. Paris, 1944, unpaginated, under no. 11, notes that Léon Leenhoff, the sitter, was nine at the time this portrait was made and illustrates prints made by Manet after this work.

Hans Huth. "Impressionism Comes to America." Gazette des beaux-arts, 6th ser., 29 (April 1946), pp. 232–33, fig. 6, remarks that William Merritt Chase "induced" Weir to buy this painting for Erwin Davis.

A. Tabarant. Manet et ses œuvres. 4th ed. (1st. ed. 1942). Paris, 1947, pp. 45, 136, 183, 534, no. 44, fig. 37, dates it 1860–61.

Fifty Paintings by Old Masters. Exh. cat., Art Gallery of Toronto. Toronto, 1950, unpaginated, no. 23, erroneously notes that it is dated 1860; comments that the sword belonged to the artist Monguiot [sic].

Josephine L. Allen and Elizabeth E. Gardner. A Concise Catalogue of the European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1954, p. 63.

George Heard Hamilton. Manet and His Critics. New Haven, 1954, pp. 38–39, 81 n. 2, pp. 96, 98, 111, 120, 130 n. 6, pp. 155, 161, 260, 265, 266, reprints and discusses contemporary criticism.

Nils Gösta Sandblad. Manet: Three Studies in Artistic Conception. Lund, 1954, pp. 31, 87.

J.-L. Vaudoyer. E. Manet. Paris, [1955], unpaginated, ill. (overall and detail), notes that this is the first time that Léon Leenhoff posed for Manet.

A. Hyatt Mayor. "The Gifts that Made the Museum." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 16 (November 1957), p. 100.

Henri Perruchot. La vie de Manet. Paris, 1959, pp. 109–10, ill. opp. p. 96 (color).

Louisine W. Havemeyer. Sixteen to Sixty: Memoirs of a Collector. New York, 1961, p. 221, comments that she regrets not having bought this picture at the 1886 New York exhibition.

Theodore Reff. "The Symbolism of Manet's Frontispiece Etchings." Burlington Magazine 104 (May 1962), pp. 183–85, fig. 2, notes that Manet borrowed the sword from his friend the painter Monginot and identifies it as "a mid-seventeenth-century hanger, probably of Saxon origin to judge from the type of blued metal pommel, though the leather baldric may be more recent"; compares it with another representation of the same sword in Manet's etching that formed the second frontispiece of a collection of eight etchings [fig. 1, see Ref. Guérin 1944].

A. Tabarant. La Vie artistique au temps de Baudelaire. 2nd ed. (1st ed. 1942). [Paris], 1963, pp. 313, 415.

Anne Coffin Hanson. Édouard Manet, 1832–1883. Exh. cat., Philadelphia Museum of Art. Philadelphia, 1966, pp. 56–57, 147, mentions it in discussing an etching of the same subject.

Charles Sterling and Margaretta M. Salinger. French Paintings: A Catalogue of the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Vol. 3, XIX–XX Centuries. New York, 1967, pp. 30–33, ill., provide information about the sitter, noting that Léon Koëlla-Leenhoff asserted that he posed for it in Manet's studio on the Rue Guyot toward the end of 1861 when he was not quite ten years old; comment that the date 1861 and a second signature, which had both been added at the beginning of the century, were removed during cleaning; describe the painting and mention that it vividly recalls Ribera's painting of a club-footed boy that was in Paris in Manet's time and was given to the Louvre in 1869.

Joel Isaacson. "The Early Paintings of Claude Monet." PhD diss., University of California, Berkeley, 1967, pp. 140, 310 n. 9.

Sandra Orienti in The Complete Paintings of Manet. New York, 1967, p. 90, no. 37, ill.

Margaretta M. Salinger. "Windows Open to Nature." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 27 (Summer 1968), unpaginated, ill.

Beatrice Farwell. "Manet's 'Espada' and Marcantonio." Metropolitan Museum Journal 2 (1969), p. 206, notes that the sitter assumes the role of a seventeenth-century Spanish page.

Joel Isaacson. Manet and Spain, Prints and Drawings. Exh. cat., The Museum of Art, The University of Michigan. Ann Arbor, Mich., 1969, pp. 19, 26, comments on the etching and notes that there is no pictorial source for this picture; suggests that the sitter Léon Koëlla-Leenhoff was Manet's son; discusses the bibliography and lists is as a work of fall 1862.

Alain De Leiris. The Drawings of Édouard Manet. Berkeley, 1969, pp. 10, 56, 105, no. 156, fig. 7 (tracing), mentions a tracing and discusses it in relation to the picture.

Denys Sutton, ed. Letters of Roger Fry. New York, 1972, vol. 1, pp. 24, 255 n. 1 to letter no. 177, p. 265 n. 1 to letter no. 191.

Steven Kovács. "Manet and His Son in 'Déjeuner dans l'atelier'." The Connoisseur 181 (November 1972), pp. 196, 198, 200, fig. 1, suggests that the subject, Léon Leenhoff, may have been the son of Manet and Suzanne Leenhoff, who later became his wife; discusses and interprets Manet's use of the sword in depictions of Léon.

Richard J. Boyle. American Impressionism. Boston, 1974, p. 160.

George Mauner. Manet, Peintre-Philosophe: A Study of the Painter's Themes. University Park, Pa., 1975, p. 177 n. 20, compares it to "La chanteuse des rues" (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston).

Denis Rouart and Daniel Wildenstein. Édouard Manet, catalogue raisonné. Paris, 1975, vol. 1, pp. 12, 24, 54–55, no. 37, ill. ; vol. 2, p. 166, date it 1862.

David H. Solkin. "Philibert Rouvière: Édouard Manet's 'L'acteur tragique'." Burlington Magazine (November 1975), p. 705, mentions it in a discussion of Manet working in the style of Velázquez.

Beatrice Farwell. "Manet's 'Nymph Surprise'." Burlington Magazine 117 (April 1975), p. 229, states that this picture of "a page in the studio of Velazquez" probably emerged from a more complex composition, of which two variants are "Spanish Studio Scene" (1860, Galerie Brame, Paris) and "Spanish Cavaliers" (ca. 1859–60, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lyons).

Anne Coffin Hanson. Manet and the Modern Tradition. New Haven, 1977, pp. 71, 79, colorpl. 48.

Paul Abe Isaacs. "The Immobility of the Self in the Art of Edouard Manet: A Study with Special Emphasis on the Relationship of his Imagery to That of Gustave Flaubert and Stephane Mallarmé." PhD diss., Brown University, 1977, p. 150 n. 39.

Bradford R. Collins. "Manet's Luncheon in the the Studio: An Homage to Baudelaire." Art Journal 38 (Winter 1978–79), p. 109.

Albert Boime. Thomas Couture and the Eclectic Vision. New Haven, 1980, pp. 461, 463.

Alain De Leiris. "Manet and El Greco: 'The Opera Ball'." Arts Magazine 55 (September 1980), p. 97.

Frances Weitzenhoffer. "First Manet Paintings to Enter an American Museum." Gazette des beaux-arts, 6th ser., 97 (March 1981), pp. 125–29, describes in detail Davis's acquisition, attempted sale, and eventual presentation to the Museum of this picture.

Charles S. Moffett in Manet, 1832–1883. Ed. Françoise Cachin and Charles S. Moffett. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1983, pp. 75–78, 109, no. 14, colorpl. 14 [French ed., Paris], cites contemporary criticism and provides extensive provenance information.

Françoise Cachin in Manet, 1832–1883. Ed. Françoise Cachin and Charles S. Moffett. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1983, pp. 46, 123, 290 [French ed., Paris].

Juliet Wilson-Bareau in Charles S. Moffett and Françoise Cachin. Manet, 1832–1883. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1983, pp. 78, 80, 82, 138 [French ed., Paris, pp. 78, 80, 82, 138], discusses three of Manet's etchings and his tracing after this picture (nos. 15–18).

Colette Becker in Françoise Cachin and Charles S. Moffett. Manet, 1832–1883. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1983, p. 522 [French ed., Paris, p. 522].

Linda Nochlin. "A Thoroughly Modern Masked Ball." Art in America 71 (November 1983), p. 192.

Charles F. Stuckey. "Manet Revised: Whodunit?" Art in America 71 (November 1983), p. 174, discusses the tale of a supposed smaller copy of the picture, later discredited by Tabarant (1931) as by another hand.

Jean-Jacques Lévêque. Manet. Paris, 1983, p. 67.

John Pope-Hennessy. "Roger Fry and The Metropolitan Museum of Art." Oxford, China, and Italy: Writings in Honour of Sir Harold Acton on his Eightieth Birthday. Ed. Edward Chaney and Neil Ritchie. London, 1984, p. 231.

Charles S. Moffett. Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1985, pp. 26–27, ill. (color), dates it about 1885.

Ragnar von Holten. Manet i närbild. Exh. cat., Nationalmuseum. Stockholm, 1985, pp. 54, 84–86, no. 59, ill. (color).

Frances Weitzenhoffer. The Havemeyers: Impressionism Comes to America. New York, 1986, pp. 35, 44, pl. 6.

Maureen C. O'Brien in Maureen C. O'Brien. In Support of Liberty: European Paintings at the 1883 Pedestal Fund Art Loan Exhibition. Exh. cat., Parrish Art Museum. Southampton, N.Y., 1986, pp. 25, 37–38, 95, 146, 154, 160, 162, 176, ill., and colorpl. XVII, discusses the "show-stopper" status of this picture and Manet's "Woman with a Parrot" (MMA 89.21.3), due to preferential hanging in the place of honor, the south wall of the paintings gallery, which they shared with Degas at the 1883 exhibition.

Kathleen Adler. Manet. Oxford, 1986, pp. 54, 77, 101, fig. 38, compares it to "The Fifer" (Musée d'Orsay, Paris).

Ronald G. Pisano in Maureen C. O'Brien. In Support of Liberty: European Paintings at the 1883 Pedestal Fund Art Loan Exhibition. Exh. cat., Parrish Art Museum. Southampton, N.Y., 1986, pp. 63, 69.

Sjraar van Heutgen et al. in Franse meesters uit het Metropolitan Museum of Art: Realisten en Impressionisten. Exh. cat., Rijksmuseum Vincent van Gogh, Amsterdam. Zwolle, The Netherlands, 1987, pp. 13, 24–25, fig. 16.

Éric Darragon. Manet. Paris, 1989, pp. 58–60, 71, 137.

Horst Keller. Edouard Manet. Munich, 1989, pp. 14, 17, fig. 11.

Anne Distel. Impressionism: The First Collectors. New York, 1990, pp. 24, 242, calls Alexis Febvre, who owned this work by 1872, "perhaps the first dealer to risk buying a Manet"; on pp. 22–23, identifies the banker Charles Edwards, a financial backer of Durand-Ruel, as the father of Alfred Edwards, another early owner of this work.

Françoise Cachin. Manet. [Paris], 1990, pp. 74–75, 156, colorpl. 3.

T. A. Gronberg. Manet: A Retrospective. New York, 1990, pp. 22, 30, 71–72, 168, 189, 228, 323, 339, colorpl. 6, translates and reprints contemporary criticism.

Éric Darragon. Manet. Paris, 1991, pp. 69, 79, 80–81, 90, 115, 188, 289, 372–73, fig. 41 (color).

Juliet Wilson-Bareau. Manet by Himself, Correspondence & Conversation: Paintings, Pastels, Prints & Drawings. Boston, 1991, pp. 16, 29, 49, 56, 163, 307 no. 54, colorpl. 54, dates it about 1860–61; as "Boy with a Sword (Study of Léon Leenhoff)".

Roger Hurlburt. "Free Spirits." Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale) (December 20, 1992), p. 4D.

Helen Kohen. "Lasting Impressions." Miami Herald (December 20, 1992), p. 6I, ill.

Sarah Carr-Gomm. Manet. London, 1992, pp. 46–47, ill. (color), comments that this was intended as a "costume piece intended to attract those fashionable members of Parisian society who liked to dress up their children".

William R. Johnston in Alfred Sisley. Ed. MaryAnne Stevens. Exh. cat., Royal Academy of Arts, London. New Haven, 1992, pp. 57–58.

Louisine W. Havemeyer. Sixteen to Sixty: Memoirs of a Collector. Ed. Susan Alyson Stein. 3rd ed. [1st ed. 1930, repr. 1961]. New York, 1993, pp. 221, 237, 333 n. 315, p. 335 n. 345.

Susan Alyson Stein in Splendid Legacy: The Havemeyer Collection. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1993, p. 206.

Gary Tinterow in Splendid Legacy: The Havemeyer Collection. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1993, pp. 8, 27, 31, fig. 1.

Vivien Perutz. Édouard Manet. Lewisburg, Pa., 1993, p. 127.

H. Barbara Weinberg in Splendid Legacy: The Havemeyer Collection. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1993, p. 76.

James H. Rubin. Manet's Silence and the Poetics of Bouquets. Cambridge, Mass., 1994, p. 171, fig. 64, notes that the sword depicted by itself in the etching for the second cover design for "Les Eaux-fortes par Edouard Manet" (1862) serves as a metonym for this composition and that Manet had intended to include an etching after the painting but left it out.

Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born Before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 442, ill. p. 443.

Dorothy Kosinski, Joachim Pissarro, and MaryAnne Stevens. From Manet to Gauguin: Masterpieces from Swiss Private Collections. Exh. cat., Royal Academy of Arts. London, 1995, p. 33.

Ronald Pickvance. Manet. Exh. cat., Fondation Pierre Gianadda. Martigny, 1996, p. 221 under no. 18, notes that the seventeenth-century Spanish costume also appears in "Boy with a Tray" (RW D454; Phillips Collection, Washington).

Hans Körner. Edouard Manet: Dandy, Flaneur, Maler. Munich, 1996, pp. 27, 29, colorpl. 19.

Beth Archer Brombert. Édouard Manet: Rebel in a Frock Coat. Boston, 1996, pp. 81, 85–86, 185–86, 255, 419, fig. 4, discusses the symbolism of the sword.

Dominique Dussol. Art et bourgeoisie: La société des amis des arts de Bordeaux (1851–1939). Bordeaux, 1997, p. 15, ill. p. 14 (color), includes it as no. 438, "Enfant à l'épée" in the Salon of 1862 of the Société des amis des arts de Bordeaux.

Gary Tinterow in La collection Havemeyer: Quand l'Amérique découvrait l'impressionnisme. Exh. cat., Musée d'Orsay. Paris, 1997, pp. 32, 107, fig. 10.

Madeleine Fidell-Beaufort. "The American Art Trade and French Painting at the End of the 19th century." Van Gogh Museum Journal (2000), p. 107.

George Mauner and Henri Loyrette. Manet: The Still-Life Paintings. Exh. cat., Musée d'Orsay. New York, 2000, pp. 21, 33–34, 66 [French ed., "Manet: Les natures mortes," Paris, pp. 36, 48, 78], discusses it in relation to the watercolor "Boy Carrying a Tray" (Phillips Collection, Washington) and suggests that the page from Caravaggio's "Alof de Wignacourt" in the Louvre and the boy carrying a pitcher in Zurbarán's "Circumcision" in Grenoble, which Manet would have seen in the Galerie Espagnole, are possible sources for this composition.

Rebecca A. Rabinow. "Modern Art Comes to the Metropolitan: The 1921 Exhibition of 'Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Paintings'." Apollo 152 (October 2000), pp. 4, 9 n. 13.

William H. Gerdts. American Impressionism. 2nd ed. New York, 2001, p. 105.

Nancy Locke. Manet and the Family Romance. Princeton, 2001, pp. 73–74, 120–23, 131, fig. 33.

Jill Berk Jiminez in Dictionary of Artists' Models. Ed. Jill Berk Jiminez and Joanna Banham. London, 2001, pp. 302, 304, calls his expression "pensive" and "seemingly beyond his years" .

Peter Meller. "Manet in Italy: Some Newly Identified Sources for his Early Sketchbooks." Burlington Magazine 144 (February 2002), pp. 92–93, sites Benozzo Gozzoli's fresco of the "Story of Abraham and Hagar" in the Camposanto in Pisa, which includes the figure of a woman carrying a dish of fruit and a boy with a tray as a possible source for this work; suggests that the MMA picture could be "a modern travesty" of "Amor with the Sword of Mars" or perhaps a "Cupid with the Sword of Alexander" since the concept of this work was possibly connected to Manet's long-planned marriage to Suzanne Leenhoff, the mother of the child depicted.

Carol Armstrong. Manet Manette. New Haven, 2002, pp. 11, 16–17, 27–28, 39–40, 47, 72, 101, 104, 114, 160, 178, ill. (no. 4 and fig. 46), questions whether this is a genre picture or a portrait.

"Exposition: Manet / Vélázquez, la manière espagnole au XIXe siècle." 48/14: La revue du Musée d’Orsay no. 15 (Autumn 2002), p. 12, ill. (color), notes that it seems judicious to have chosen this painting as the symbol of the exhibition in Paris due to Zola’s particular praise for its Spanish influences [Zola 1867].

Deborah L. Roldán in Gary Tinterow and Geneviève Lacambre. Manet/Velázquez: The French Taste for Spanish Painting. Exh. cat., Musée d'Orsay, Paris. New York, 2003, pp. 391, 395.

Juliet Wilson-Bareau in Gary Tinterow and Geneviève Lacambre. Manet/Velázquez: The French Taste for Spanish Painting. Exh. cat., Musée d'Orsay, Paris. New York, 2003, pp. 213–15, 217, 237, 484, 486–87, 529, no. 133, fig. 9.21 [French ed., "Manet/Velázquez: La manière espagnole au XIXe siècle," Paris, 2002, p. 377, no. 73, fig. 1 (color)], dates it 1860–61, noting that it is more likely that it was painted in 1860 given the babyish features of Léon; discusses the possible sources for this composition and compares it to "The Young Lange" (RW 61; Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe); provides its stock number as 930 and the precise date for Febvre's sale of the painting to Durand-Ruel as January 8, 1872.

Gary Tinterow in Gary Tinterow and Geneviève Lacambre. Manet/Velázquez: The French Taste for Spanish Painting. Exh. cat., Musée d'Orsay, Paris. New York, 2003, pp. 2–3, 51, fig. 1.1 (color).

H. Barbara Weinberg in Gary Tinterow and Geneviève Lacambre. Manet/Velázquez: The French Taste for Spanish Painting. Exh. cat., Musée d'Orsay, Paris. New York, 2003, pp. 288–89 n. 110.

Trevor Fairbrother in Gary Tinterow and Geneviève Lacambre. Manet/Velázquez: The French Taste for Spanish Painting. Exh. cat., Musée d'Orsay, Paris. New York, 2003, p. 529.

Manuela B. Mena Marqués in Manet en el Prado. Ed. Manuela B. Mena Marqués. Exh. cat., Museo Nacional del Prado. Madrid, 2003, pp. 16–17, 25, 146, 156–58, 166, 188, 220, 238, 373, 428, 432, 435, 443, 452–53, no. 24, colorpls. 1 and 24 (overall and detail), ill., dates it between 1860 and 1861 and discusses possible sources for the composition.

Juliet Wilson-Bareau in Manet en el Prado. Ed. Manuela B. Mena Marqués. Exh. cat., Museo Nacional del Prado. Madrid, 2003, pp. 46–48, 55, 383–84, 388.

Valeriano Bozal in Manet en el Prado. Ed. Manuela B. Mena Marqués. Exh. cat., Museo Nacional del Prado. Madrid, 2003, pp. 86, 403–4.

Gudrun Mühle-Maurer in Manet en el Prado. Ed. Manuela B. Mena Marqués. Exh. cat., Museo Nacional del Prado. Madrid, 2003, pp. 353–54, 495–96.

Julia Rowland Myers. "J. Alden Weir's Essay on 'Modern Life': 'In the Park' of 1879." American Art Journal 34–35 (2003–4), p. 173, states that Weir copied the head of the figure in this painting and that the copy is now at Brigham Young University, Provo.

Nancy Locke. "Manet's Oceanic Feeling." Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide 4 (Spring 2005) [http://www.19thc-artworldwide.org/spring05/303-manets-oceanic-feeling].

Ross King. The Judgment of Paris: The Revolutionary Decade That Gave the World Impressionism. New York, 2006, p. 54.

John Elderfield. Manet and the Execution of Maximilian. Exh. cat., Museum of Modern Art. New York, 2006, pp. 80–81, 120, fig. 34 (color), relates this picture to the figure of the sword carrier in one of the Maximilian paintings (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston).

Gary Tinterow in The Masterpieces of French Painting from The Metropolitan Museum of Art: 1800–1920. Exh. cat., Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. New York, 2007, pp. 6, 80–81, 223–25, no. 56, ill. (color and black and white) and fig. 16 (installation photo, color).

Jérôme Poggi. "Les galeries du boulevard des Italiens, antichambre de la modernité." 48/14: La revue du Musée d'Orsay no. 27 (Autumn 2008), p. 30, fig. 8 (color), compares its realism to that of Jacques Louis David’s “Marat” (1793, Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels), also exhibited at the Galerie Martinet in 1863; asks whether the juxtaposition of these paintings, and others like them, allowed the exhibition’s visitors to “perceive another more modern form of heroism”.

Laurence des Cars in Manet, inventeur du Moderne. Exh. cat., Musée d'Orsay. Paris, 2011, p. 54 n. 31.

Simon Kelly in Manet, inventeur du Moderne. Exh. cat., Musée d'Orsay. Paris, 2011, pp. 58, 60, 67 n. 13, p. 68 nn. 36–37 and 40–41.

Nancy Locke in Manet, inventeur du Moderne. Exh. cat., Musée d'Orsay. Paris, 2011, pp. 74, 77, 269, 274, no. 26, colorpl. 32.

Philippe Sollers and Stéphane Guégan in Manet, inventeur du Moderne. Exh. cat., Musée d'Orsay. Paris, 2011, p. 108.

Stéphane Guégan in Manet, inventeur du Moderne. Exh. cat., Musée d'Orsay. Paris, 2011, pp. 118, 159, ill. pp. 116, 119 (color details).

Isabelle Cahn in Manet, inventeur du Moderne. Exh. cat., Musée d'Orsay. Paris, 2011, p. 171.

MaryAnne Stevens in Manet: Portraying Life. Exh. cat., Toledo Museum of Art. London, 2012, p. 179, under no. 9.

Sarah Lea in Manet: Portraying Life. Exh. cat., Toledo Museum of Art. London, 2012, fig. 80, reproduces Manet's letter of September 16, 1870, to Duret asking him to store a group of paintings (including this one) during the siege.

Robert Lethbridge in Perspectives on Manet. Ed. Therese Dolan. Farnham, Surrey, 2012, pp. 100, 102.

Veronique Chagnon-Burke. "Rue Laffitte: Looking at and Buying Contemporary Art in Mid-Nineteenth-Century Paris." Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide 11 (Summer 2012), fig. 12 (color) [http://www.19thc-artworldwide.org/summer12/veronique-chagnon-burke-looking-at-and-buying-contemporary-art-in-mid-nineteenth-century-paris].

Stéphane Guégan in Manet: Ritorno a Venezia. Ed. Stéphane Guégan. Exh. cat., Palazzo Ducale. Venice, 2013, pp. 126, 268.

Ed Lilley. "Manet and His London Critics Revisited." Burlington Magazine 156 (April 2014), p. 232.

Isabelle Gaëtan and Monique Nonne in Inventing Impressionism: Paul Durand-Ruel and the Modern Art Market. Ed. Sylvie Patry. Exh. cat., Musée du Luxembourg, Paris. London, 2015, pp. 211, 215 [French ed., "Paul Durand-Ruel: le Pari de l'Impressionnisme," Paris, 2014, pp. 197, 200], state that Durand-Ruel bought it from Febvre on January 6, 1872 [but see Wilson-Bareau 2003, p. 486, no. 133].

Sylvie Patry et al. in Inventing Impressionism: Paul Durand-Ruel and the Modern Art Market. Ed. Sylvie Patry. Exh. cat., Musée du Luxembourg, Paris. London, 2015, p. 23 [French ed., "Paul Durand-Ruel: le Pari de l'Impressionnisme," Paris, 2014, p. 24].

Paul-Louis Durand-Ruel and Flavie Durand-Ruel in Inventing Impressionism: Paul Durand-Ruel and the Modern Art Market. Ed. Sylvie Patry. Exh. cat., Musée du Luxembourg, Paris. London, 2015, p. 44 [French ed., "Paul Durand-Ruel: le Pari de l'Impressionnisme," Paris, 2014, p. 42].

Jennifer A. Thompson in Inventing Impressionism: Paul Durand-Ruel and the Modern Art Market. Ed. Sylvie Patry. Exh. cat., Musée du Luxembourg, Paris. London, 2015, pp. 139, 143, fig. 91 (color) [French ed., "Paul Durand-Ruel: le Pari de l'Impressionnisme," Paris, 2014, pp. 108, 110, fig. 75 (color)].

Joseph J. Rishel in Inventing Impressionism: Paul Durand-Ruel and the Modern Art Market. Ed. Sylvie Patry. Exh. cat., Musée du Luxembourg, Paris. London, 2015, pp. 242, 244, no. 20, ill. (color) [French ed., "Paul Durand-Ruel: le Pari de l'Impressionnisme," Paris, 2014, pp. 168, 170, no. 25, ill. (color)], notes that it was one of the first two paintings by Manet in a public collection in the United States and cites Weitzenhoffer 1986 in quoting H. O. Havemeyer as having said the painting was "too much for [him]".

Ken Johnson. "A Portrait, Freely Brushed, of a Shrewd Dealer." New York Times (July 24, 2015), p. C22.

Kathryn Calley Galitz. The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Masterpiece Paintings. New York, 2016, p. 438, under no. 358.

Ségolène Le Men and Sylvain Amic in Scènes de la vie impressionniste: Manet, Renoir, Monet, Morisot . . . Exh. cat., Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rouen. Paris, 2016, p. 25.

Ben Street in The Shape of Time. Ed. Sabine Haag and Jasper Sharp. Exh. cat., Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna. Cologne, 2018, p. 66, ill. pp. 65, 67, 68 (color, overall and installation photographs).

Martin Gammon. Deaccessioning and Its Discontents: A Critical History. Cambridge, Mass., 2018, p. 401 n. 17.

Juliet Wilson-Bareau in Manet Paintings and Works on Paper at the Art Institute of Chicago. Ed. Gloria Groom and Genevieve Westerby. Chicago, 2019, under no. 5 [https://publications.artic.edu/manet/reader/manetart/section/140031].

Juliet Wilson-Bareau and Genevieve Westerby in Manet Paintings and Works on Paper at the Art Institute of Chicago. Ed. Gloria Groom and Genevieve Westerby. Chicago, 2019, under nos. 10–11 [https://publications.artic.edu/manet/reader/manetart/section/140038].

Caroline Elam. Roger Fry and Italian Art. London, 2019, p. 105.

Leah Lehmbeck in Manet and Modern Beauty: The Artist's Last Years. Ed. Scott Allan, Emily A. Beeny, and Gloria Groom. Exh. cat., Art Institute of Chicago. Los Angeles, 2019, p. 67.

Katharine Baetjer and Joan R. Mertens. "The Founding Decades." Making The Met, 1870–2020. Ed. Andrea Bayer with Laura D. Corey. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2020, pp. 43, 258 n. 24.

Katharine Baetjer in European Masterpieces from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Exh. cat., Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art. South Brisbane, 2021, pp. 200, 232, ill. p. 201 (color).

Christine Demele in Manet and Astruc: Friendship and Inspiration. Ed. Dorothee Hansen. Exh. cat., Kunsthalle Bremen. Madrid, 2021, pp. 57, 65 n. 24.

Alice Gudera in Manet and Astruc: Friendship and Inspiration. Ed. Dorothee Hansen. Exh. cat., Kunsthalle Bremen. Madrid, 2021, p. 166.

Stephan Wolohojian and Ashley E. Dunn. Manet/Degas. Exh. cat., Musée d'Orsay, Paris. New York, 2023, pp. 15, 296, colorpl. 44.

Samuel Rodary and Haley S. Pierce in Stephan Wolohojian and Ashley E. Dunn. Manet/Degas. Exh. cat., Musée d'Orsay, Paris. New York, 2023, p. 278.

Isolde Pludermacher in Manet/Degas. Ed. Laurence des Cars, Stéphane Guégan, and Isolde Pludermacher. Exh. cat., Musée d'Orsay. Paris, 2023, pp. 26, 38.

Manet/Degas. Ed. Laurence des Cars, Stéphane Guégan, and Isolde Pludermacher. Exh. cat., Musée d'Orsay. Paris, 2023, p. 258, colorpl. 18.

Colin B. Bailey. "A New Language of Modern Art." New York Review of Books (December 21, 2023) [https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2023/12/21/a-new-language-of-modern-art-manet-degas], includes provenance information for the painting.

The boy is Léon Koëlla-Leenhoff (1852–1927), the son of Suzanne Leenhoff, a Dutch musician, and probably Édouard Manet, who was also his godfather. The sword pictured belonged to the artist Charles Monginot (see Reff 1962).

Manet made numerous etchings, three of which show the figure turned to the left and two to the right. Duret (1902) listed a small copy of this picture as by Manet in the Gérard collection; but it is a copy by another hand (see Tabarant 1931).