Still Life with Flowers, Fan, and Pearls

This 1861 still life from the Metropolitan Museum combines flowers, a Japanese fan, and pearls — an early instance of Manet's interest in Japanese art objects that would become a broader obsession in Paris following the opening of Japan to Western trade in the late 1850s. The fan functions both as an exotic prop and as a compositional element that flattens space in the manner of Japanese prints. Manet would incorporate Japanese fans, kimono fabrics, and decorative objects throughout his career. This relatively early example shows the beginning of that interest, fusing a traditional European still life format with a newly fashionable Japoniste element.

Manet uses a relatively careful technique appropriate to the early 1860s still life tradition. The flowers are rendered with more detail than his later rapid style, while the fan's bold decorative pattern is rendered flatly, introducing a graphic element that disrupts the illusion of three-dimensional space.