Jean-Baptiste Faure (1830–1914)

Jean-Baptiste Faure was among the most important early collectors and champions of Impressionism — the celebrated baritone had acquired dozens of works by Manet, Monet, and Degas at a time when such purchases required genuine courage against academic opinion. Manet's 1882 portrait of his patron and friend is thus a painting of personal and art-historical significance, recording the man who helped sustain the Impressionist enterprise financially and socially. Faure sits with the composed authority of an opera star accustomed to public attention, while Manet brings to the portrait the directness and informality that had always distinguished his figure work from official portraiture conventions.

The Metropolitan's canvas shows Manet's late handling at its most confident — the face is built up with relatively few strokes, each placed with the certainty of a painter who no longer needed to revise. The dark suit merges with the shadowed background in Manet's characteristic manner, isolating the illuminated face and hands.