In the context of this artwork, discuss the Chicago painting of the Versions.
The oil painting held at the Art Institute of Chicago is the most widely known version of the work and was created in 1866. While there had been debate about its creation date due to the smudging of the inscription on the work (read variously as 1865 or 1867), a microscopic examination of the work indicated that the date is 1866. The relationship of this work to the other versions is also unresolved. Art historian Theodore Reff writes, "although [this painting] shows the most important section of the large composition [Manet] exhibited in 1865, it cannot actually belong to it; it is painted in a more vigorous, sketchy style than the surviving two fragments, and it includes at the lower left two female spectators very close to those shown in one of the fragments." Reff further concludes that the work must have been done in preparation for the 1867 painting as both shared a one to two scale. But Jean Harris claims that this work "must be a further reworking of the right section of the original [1864] painting" done by a "desire for simplification and unification."
Art Institute of Chicago 1866 Chicago