The most photographic of painters.

A friend in London is visiting the Manet show at the Royal Academy and sent over a clandestine snap of The Luncheon. The image below is the real thing.

Manet: The Luncheon, 1868.

Has there ever been a more purely photographic vision in oils? Manet’s genius was that he snapped the image of the haughty, wealthy young diner departing the feast in his mind, only later transferring it to canvas. The modern photographer is spared both the need for genius and of the skill in rendering something similar. Manet used what looks like the equivalent of 24mm lens vision here, albeit using a large aperture to render the waitress blurred.

The no less special The Railway from the National Gallery is also in the show.