In the summer and fall of 1880, Manet spent five months in the spa town of Bellevue, on the left bank of the Seine west of Paris, where he rented a villa at 41 route des Gardes and underwent a course of hydrotherapy treatment at the recommendation of his doctors. It was something of an enforced exile from the city, and, as Juliet Wilson-Bareau has noted, ‘With bad weather to prevent him working and bored away from Paris, Manet amused himself by writing to his friends, and soon took to decorating his missives with ink or watercolour sketches...the self-styled ‘lonely exile’ wrote letters...that are witty, tender or plaintive; he threatens or cajoles by turns, soliciting replies and visits...’

The present letter, an invitation to lunch, is addressed to Manet’s friend, the trader and collector Albert Hecht (1842-1899), and is a testament to the longstanding friendship between the two men. Albert Hecht and his brother Henri were two of the earliest collectors of Impressionist art, and were close friends with both Manet and Edgar Degas. The Hechts purchased a number of paintings by Manet from dealers and at auction, and Albert also owned works by Pissarro, Monet, Degas and Sisley.