The Boy with a Sword III

Manet created this print as a reproduction of a painting of the same subject (now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York), for which he used his ten-year-old stepson as the model. The boy is dressed in 17th-century Spanish costume, a conscious reference to Diego Velazquez’s portraits of members of the Spanish Hapsburg court. Carrying a sword larger than himself, the boy is presented as a youthful incarnation of the man he is expected to become. Although he appears burdened by the unwieldy weapon, it is implied that he eventually will have to grow up to manage it along with the broader responsibilities that come with manhood.