Homage To Manet

Enter the gallery and this show puts you in the picture straight away; the picture it puts you into is William Orpen’s group portrait of critics, collectors and painters as they sit taking tea in 1909. Reflected in its glass, you can see yourself as one of the party, paying homage to Edouard Manet.

Homage To Manet is a celebration of his portrayal of women and how he influenced other painters in their depiction of females. Here is Alfred Munnings’s painting of a young, full-skirted Laura Knight, viewed from behind as she works on her picture of a horse. It’s one of the best jokes in the show: her horse painting, as painted by Munnings, is not quite so good as his painting of the horse she is painting.

The picture that inspired this exhibition and glows at its centre is Manet’s 1868 portrait of Mademoiselle Claus, hung on an island panel in the centre of the room. Fanny Claus studied the violin at the Paris Conservatoire and played professionally, both as a soloist and as part of what was claimed as the first all-female string quartet. Manet shows her sitting on a balcony. There’s no sign of her chosen instrument, but half-in, half-out of the frame stands another female figure holding what could be, might be, a violin.

Following Manet’s death, the painting was bought by John Singer Sargent, the painter who was American by nationality, cosmopolitan by inclination. He brought it to England where it wasn’t seen again in public until 2011, apart from a fleeting appearance at the National Gallery in 1983. Home to this Fanny Claus painting now is the Ashmolean Museum.

Among those seen in Orpen’s tea-table tribute to Manet is Philip Wilson Steer, one of the most prominent of English impressionists. The Tate has lent his Girls Running, Walberswick Pier, painted and repainted between 1888 and 1894. ‘Mr Steer has not, or has not yet, the science of singing of a Manet, but at least he has a voice,’ read the faint praise of a contemporary critic.

This is a fine show, entertaining, informative and inspiring. Exhibitions always yield at least one item that I want to steal. This is no exception. The picture that could see me reaching for the ski mask and jemmy is The Black Brook (1908), Sargent’s radiant study of his pretty niece, Rose Marie, in sunshine and shadow. Irresistible. I shall return.

Until 19 April at Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery, Castle Hill, Norwich: 01603-495897, www.museums.norfolk.gov.uk