ABSTRACT
Although it has long been speculated that Édouard Manet may have suffered from and perhaps even died of complications relating to syphilis, the exact nature of his condition has never been clearly established. This essay uses Manet’s letters and the reminiscences of his contemporaries to reconstruct the progression of the artist’s physical decline in terms of changes to the overall scale and orientation of his compositions as he became increasingly immobile in 1882–1883. By conducting an analysis that takes into account the ways that Manet physically adapted his artistic practice to his increasing debility and pain, this essay creates a fuller picture of the art and life of one of history’s greatest modern painters.
