Bring your favorites together in your free personal gallery.
Your galleryBeggar with Oysters (Philosopher)
Look first
- What catches your attention?
- Where does your eye go next?
- What would you ask about this work?
Show me
Find the pale oyster shells at the man’s feet, then look back up to the face emerging above the broad dark cloak.
This painting belonged to Manet’s group called The Philosophers, which connected impoverished Parisian figures with a tradition associating poverty and wisdom. The full-length format and nearly empty background give this anonymous man a presence usually reserved for prestigious subjects. The oysters remain a small, concrete detail beside that imposing figure.
Oil on canvas · 188 × 111 cm · Art Institute of Chicago · Realism
Look again
What do you notice now?
Try a quick sketch
Take a minute to sketch on any paper. No upload needed.
What did you draw first? What did you leave out?
Details and source
- Museum title
- Beggar with Oysters (Philosopher)
- Artist
- Édouard Manet (French, 1832–1883)
- Date
- 1865–67
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 188 × 111 cm (74 × 43 5/16 in.); Framed: 223.3 × 145.5 × 17.5 cm (87 7/8 × 57 1/4 × 6 7/8 in.)
- Credit line
- Arthur Jerome Eddy Memorial Collection
- Image license
- CC0 1.0 · Public domain
- Museum record
- Art Institute of Chicago
Galler’s rooms and hanging scale are imagined. The image is the museum’s original digital reproduction.