The life of one of the fathers of modernity is full of anecdotes that enrich our understanding of his art. Contrary to the image of the bohemian painter portrayed by critics and the public — who, incidentally, sometimes confused him with his near-namesake, Claude Monet — Manet was, in fact, a bourgeois, republican gentleman who was prepared to defend his honour or that of his sister-in-law in a duel.