Édouard Manet (1832–1883)
Boy with a Dog, from the portfolio Eight Etchings by Manet, 1862
Etching and aquatint on cream laid paper
Sheet: 14 1/16 x 10 3/8 in. (35.7 x 26.3 cm)
Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts, 1962.79
One of eight sheets that formed part of Manet’s first portfolio of prints, this work is based on a drawing probably made from life several years earlier. The subject is the artist’s young assistant and occasional model Alexandre, who committed suicide in his studio in 1859. He is recalled here in a moment of happiness with a dog nearly his size.