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In this large painting, exhibited at the 1870 Salon, artists and writers are grouped around Manet, leader of the so-called Batignolles school. The figure apparently sitting for his portrait is Zacharie Astruc, while the five men behind him are recognizable as (from the left) Renoir, Zola, Edmond Maître, Bazille, and Monet. The man behind Manet is Otto Scholderer. The spherical vase was made by Laurent Bouvier (1840-1901), one of the earliest Japanese-influenced potters in Paris. It was included in the painting as a symbol of the interest that the most modern artists were now taking in Japanese art, alongside with a statue of the Greek goddess Minerva, standing for reason and truth.
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