This painting and Beggar with Oysters were probably conceived as companion pieces. Édouard Manet exhibited them together in 1872, along with paintings of an absinthe drinker and a ragpicker, under the collective
title Philosophers. The beggars of Paris, nonconformist types under threat from government schemes intended to drive them out of the city, held a particular fascination for Realist artists and writers. By setting
his large-scale figures against empty, dark backgrounds, Manet added to their portraitlike, indeed heroic, presence. By a remarkable coincidence, at the turn of the 20th century, these two closely related works
found their way by very different means to the Art Institute’s collection.
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