![Edouard Manet - Luncheon in the Studio [1868]](http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3874/15006783525_292eb6476d_o.jpg)
Partially a portrait of 16-year-old Léon Leenhoff (the son of Suzanne Leenhoff before her 1863 marriage to Manet, and possibly the son of Manet or Manet's father Auguste) it is also an enigmatic work that has received limited attention within Manet's oeuvre. Critic Nan Stalnaker notes that "despite continued questions about its meaning, the work is acknowledged to be brilliantly painted and a major Manet work.”
Leenhoff is the focus of the painting, with his back to the other two people, who have at various points been identified as his mother and Manet. These identifications are now seen as incorrect; the man smoking at the table is anonymous (although he bears a resemblance to Manet), and the woman gazing toward the viewer is a servant. Nevertheless, given the uncertain status of Leenhoff's paternity, Meyers proposes that the two figures may symbolically represent Suzanne and Édouard and "their belated recognition and acceptance of Auguste's son.”
[Neue Pinakothek, Munich - Oil on canvas, 118 x 154 cm]