MANET ÉDOUARD (1832-1883).

Autograph poem-letter with original DRAWING, Thursday, [probably to Henri ROUART]; 1 page in-8 (207 x 134 mm). Amusing letter in verse illustrated with a pen-and-ink drawing. Epistle of 8 verses bringing together, around the evocation of the Folies-Bergères, the line of masters who most inspired Manet and in which he fits: Titian, El Greco and Velasquez. "Without me at the Folies-Bergères, To go and see the acrobats, You were seen walking around yesterday, In that case, I miss you. Have you sold your beautiful Titian, Your peerless Velasquez This Greco that I would buy Or are you doing it to my ear?" As a signature, Manet drew the head in profile of his cat Zizi in Indian ink (ink and pen, 2.9 x 3.7 cm). He was particularly fond of this animal, which he represented several times, notably in his letters, and alongside his wife Suzanne Leenhoff in his painting La Femme au chat. [Manet represented the Folies-Bergères in his great painting, Un Bar aux Folies Bergères. The recipient of this illustrated poem is most likely the great collector Henri ROUART (1833-1912), founder of a dynasty of collectors. He had taken painting lessons with Corot, at the same time as he was preparing for Polytechnique, and exhibited in the company of his Impressionist friends while buying their paintings: Henri Rouart owned nearly half a thousand works, chosen without concern for ephemeral fashions and with the most reliable taste: Corot, Delacroix, Courbet, Daumier, Manet, Cézanne, Degas, Monet, and Gauguin, were side by side with works by the great old masters, including the masters mentioned in this poem, Velasquez, Titian, and El Greco. Manet and Rouart were very close friends; Julie Manet, daughter of Berthe Morisot and Eugène Manet (brother of Édouard), married Ernest Rouart (brother of Henri)].