A red chalk drawing depicting a crouching child is being attributed to French modernist Édouard Manet after being identified in a private Italian collection. The work was noticed by an art historian and is described as a study whose subject resembles a street figure in Manet paintings. The child’s identity is not established, according to reporting on the discovery.
Both outlets say the attribution is based on the drawing’s close visual match to a figure associated with Manet’s treatment of marginalized people. The Guardian links the child’s appearance to Manet’s work showing a homeless or marginalised “street urchin,” while Artforum describes the suspected study as connected to a specific Manet figure in “Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe” (Luncheon on the Grass). While both accounts agree on the private collection setting, the chalk medium, and the proposed connection to Manet’s figures, they differ in how they name the related painting.
Further confirmation of the drawing’s authorship and the identity of the child figure is not reported in the available summaries.
