A careful rendering of objects selected for their varied colors, shapes, and textures and neatly arranged on a table top is a perfect vehicle for the display of Fantin-Latour’s technical facility. A companion of artists with such diverse tastes as Ingres, Delacroix, Corot, Courbet, and Whistler, he created a delicate art which appealed to all. The objects in this still life have been skillfully placed on the table to establish a self-contained pictorial composition. The book is turned at an angle to lead the eye back towards the vase of flowers, which forms a climax for the picture. The bald shape of the book is artfully interrupted by the silhouette of the dainty cup; and the tray, overlapping the table edge, also relieves the monotony of too straight a line. For the same reason the fruits overlap the tray and basket. Further variety is given by the careful distinction of various textures. Like a Dutch Old Master, Fantin-Latour has included a peeled orange to let him display his cleverness in showing textural variety, and he has dwelt lovingly on the petals of the flowers. Such a picture conservatively retains much of the academic style; it was composed on the table top before it was ever painted, and it should be distinguished from the work of Fantin-Latour’s more progressive friends. [Illustration: Canvas. 24⅜ × 29½ inches Dated 1866] Édouard Manet (1832-1883) _Gare Saint-Lazare_ _Gift of Horace Havemeyer in memory of his mother Louisine W. Havemeyer_ As chic as a fashion plate, Manet’s picture shows how he reacted against the academy and found a fresh style to paint the life of his times. The fashionable young woman is Victorine Meurend, Manet’s favorite model, whom he painted in _The Picnic_ and _Olympia_, where his bold treatment of the nude figure shocked or entertained most of Paris. The little girl was the daughter of a friend, in whose garden Manet painted the picture. The child looks through the iron railing, evidently fascinated by a train that has pulled into the Saint-Lazare station in Paris. Obligingly the train has left behind it a cloud of white smoke which obliterates unwanted detail from the background so that Manet can arrange the figures in a handsome pattern against the regular intervals of the railing. Like the Impressionists Manet used light colors and, by suppressing shadows, he secured the effect of bright, outdoor lighting. While he satisfies the Realist’s love for an apparently casual composition, with its figures off-center and “unposed,” actually he has sensitively composed them according to principles learned from Japanese prints. As in the Oriental woodcuts, here, too, broad silhouettes of contrasting colors lend the picture its sparkle, while graceful curving contours in the figures and costumes form a pleasing design. [Illustration: Canvas. 36¾ × 45⅛ Dated 1873]