Édouard Manet

Baron Joseph Raphaël Vitta, Paris (sold: Paris, Hôtel Drouot, May 27, 1926, lot 121)

Private Collection, Berlin (acquired by 1928)

Ellen Katzenellenbogen, Germany and Santa Monica, California (acquired by 1934)

Private Collection, Sweden

Private Collection

Berlin, Galerie Matthiesen, Ausstellung Édouard Manet, 1928, pl. LXV, no. 67, illustrated in the catalogue

Bern, Kunsthalle, Französischer Meister der 19. Jahrhunderts und van Gogh, 1934, no. 74

Paris, Huguette Berès, Manet, 1978, no. 16, illustrated in the catalogue

Tokyo, Isetan Museum of Art; Fukuoka, Art Museum & Osaka, Osaka Municipal Museum of Art, Édouard Manet, 1986, no. 54, illustrated in color in the catalogue

Martigny, Fondation Pierre Gianadda, Manet, 1996, no. 81, illustrated in color in the catalogue

Rome, Complesso del Vittoriano, Manet, 2005-06, no. 127, illustrated in color in the catalogue

Édouard Manet, Letter to the Editor of L'Art, April 21, 1881, mentioned (printed in Juliet Wilson-Bareau, ed., Manet by Himself, Correspondence & Conversation: Paintings, Pastels, Prints & Drawings, London, 1991, p. 260)

Adolphe Tabarant, Manet: histoire catalographique, Paris, 1931, pp. 560-61, no. 109

Paul Jamot & Georges Wildenstein, Manet, vol. 1, Paris, 1932, discussed p. 174

Adolphe Tabarant, Manet et ses oeuvres, Paris, 1947, discussed p. 403

Alain de Leiris, The Drawings of Édouard Manet, Berkeley & Los Angeles, 1969, no. 589, illustrated n.p.

A.C. Hanson, "Alain de Leiris, The Drawings of Edouard Manet" (book review), The Art Bulletin, No. 4, December 1971, p. 547

Denis Rouart & Daniel Wildenstein, Édouard Manet, Catalogue raisonné, vol. 2, Lausanne & Paris, 1975, no. 488, illustrated p. 175

Sophie Monneret, L'Impressionnisme et son époque, vol. 2, Paris, 1979, discussed p. 116

Françoise Cachin, Charles S. Moffett & Michel Melot, Manet, 1832-1883 (exhibition catalogue), Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, Paris & The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1983, illustrated p. 473

Melissa McQuillan, Impressionist Portraits, London, 1986, p. 164

Ettore Camesasca, Trésors du Musée d'Art de São Paulo: de Manet à Picasso (exhibition catalogue), Fondation Pierre Gianadda, Martigny, 1988, illustrated p. 44

Juliet Wilson-Bareau, ed., Manet by Himself, Correspondence & Conversation: Paintings, Pastels, Prints & Drawings, London, 1991, illustrated p. 260

This work is in very good condition. Executed on cream-colored wove paper. The sheet is backed with a thin tissue and the tissue layer is reinforced near the center and left of the center of the sheet. The work is affixed to a mat along the top edge of the tissue backing. There is a soft crease running horizontally across the sheet as well as a vertical one, perhaps evidence that the sheet was at some point folded into quarters. The ink is strong with no abrasions or losses. The sheet is slightly time-darkened.
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.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Related directly to the artist's monumental composition now housed at the Museu de Arte in São Paulo, Portrait de M. Pertusiet, Chasseur de lions, the current sketch was executed in 1881. The subject of this work is the celebrated lion hunter, Eugène Pertuiset, who enjoyed relative acclaim during the Second Empire in France. Pertuiset posed for Manet on the Boulevard de Clichy in 1880, though the lion pelt that appears behind him commemorates a 1866 hunt. According to Juliet Wilson-Bareau, Manet completed this sketch in 1881, shortly after he had completed the monumental oil. He mentioned in a letter of April 21st to the editor of L'Art that he would send along this sketch, perhaps for reproduction in the publication.

Françoise Cachin writes of the dialogue between the artist and this celebrated sportsman, "Manet had long been acquainted with Eugène Pertuiset, already a popular Paris figure under the Second Empire, who would appear at Tortoni's between expeditions to Algeria or Patagonia. He was a man of adventure, a mighty hunter, a sometime painter - some titles in the Pertuiset sale of 1888 were The Lion Awakens, African Night, Cape Horn, Moonlight - a dealer in weapons, and a collector of paintings, particularly those by Manet, and his stories were found entertaining by the artist. Very likely he tended to exaggerate. The lion hunter was a popular adventurer type in the 1860s... After military conquest, the elimination of predators becomes the very symbol of colonization" (Françoise Cachin, Charles S. Moffett & Michel Melot, Manet, 1832-1883 (exhibition catalogue), op. cit., p. 471).