Manet's “Winter Garden”, bought for Berlin in 1896 and later stored in a salt mine

American soldiers with Édouard Manet's "In the Conservatory", removed from Berlin and kept with other masterpieces in a salt mine at Merkers-Kieselbach in Germany. In the end the painting stayed in Germany, and it is now in the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin.

The portrait of Manet's friends, the Guillemets, owners of a fashionable dress shop, was painted in Paris and exhibited at the Salon of 1879, becoming one of the few works by Manet that did not provoke hostility among the critics and was received with favour. In 1896 it was acquired for the National Gallery in Berlin for one hundred thousand francs.

"In the Conservatory" was the first work by Manet to be acquired by a major European museum, which effectively meant the official recognition of Impressionist painting by a serious institution and Manet's arrival on the world stage.

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Manet's “Winter Garden”, bought for Berlin in 1896 and later stored in a salt mine

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