Edouard Manet - Flowers in a Crystal Vase

Small paintings. A handful of flowers, a glass vase, water you can see through. Manet made about sixteen of these in the last months of his life, when he couldn't stand for long. Friends kept showing up with bouquets. He'd cut a few stems, drop them in whatever glass was on the table, and paint them from a chair. Lilacs, roses, pinks, one time a single stem. Done in a sitting, most of them. Small enough to hold. None of them are grandiose. They're better than that. Sixteen little paintings made at the end of everything, and they're full of life.