A Studio at Les Batignolles

Henri Fantin-Latour painted A Studio at Les Batignolles in 1870, a group portrait of the artists who would soon become known as the Impressionists. Édouard Manet sits at his easel painting Zacharie Astruc, surrounded by friends including Claude Monet, Auguste Renoir, and writer Émile Zola.

The Batignolles district was where Manet and his circle lived and met. Fantin-Latour posed each man formally, their dark suits and grave expressions presenting these "decried" young artists as serious, respectable figures. The statuette of Minerva and a Japanese-style jar nod to their aesthetic influences.

Frédéric Bazille, shown in tartan trousers, died just months later in the Franco-Prussian War at age 26. The painting now hangs at the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, a document of artistic friendship before the Impressionist movement took shape.