Édouard Manet was one of the most influential artist to have heeded Charles Baudelaire’s call to artists to become painters of modern life. Manet had an upper-class upbringing, but led a bohemian life, and was driven to scandalize the French Salon public with his disregard for academic conventions and his strikingly modern images. He has long been associated with the Impressionists; he was certainly an important influence on them and he learned much from them himself. However, in recent years critics have acknowledged that he also learned from the Realism and Naturalism of his French contemporaries, and even from 17th century Spanish painting. This twin interest in Old Masters and contemporary Realism gave him the crucial foundation for his revolutionary approach. (The Art Story)