The Croquet Party (La partie de croquet)

Manet shows a group of his family and friends playing croquet-a pastime newly imported from England-at the fashionable resort of Boulogne on the Normandy Coast. He masterfully evokes the sea breeze that tugs at skirts, blows through flags and causes a woman to clutch at her hat. Croquet was known as an occasion for dalliance between the sexes. Manet hints at a flirtatious relationship between his stepson, Léon Leenhoff, in brown trousers, and a young artist, Jeanne Gonzalès, who stands close by in fashionable yellow and blue attire.