Edward Manet’s 1868 oil painting, The Balcony, was first exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1869.  Obvious inspiration comes from Goya’s The Majas at the Balcony, which stems from the themes of class structure. Two intimidating male companions oversee two young and smiling upper-class women.  In The Balcony a stiff and awkward trio replaces the balanced quartette in The Majas at the Balcony. Manet also exchanges Goya’s sinister balcony setting for a spruced up minty green version. He seeks to express the life of the upper class, and succeeds in unveiling the rigidness beneath the poised façade.
The three polished subjects, who were all friends of Manet, seem disjointed, as if they were taken from other works and pasted together on the canvas. Berthe Morisot, on the left, sits like a romantic waiting for her suiter. Her piercing eyes are the most defined, but send gazes away from the viewer and off the painting. Antoine Gilement, a painter, displays a look of indifference and rigidity. Finally, a young violinist, Fanny Claus, seems completely uncomfortable with the entire situation. She stands holding her hand together and on her tiptoes as if she were to leave the scene at any moment. A small boy carrying a tray in the background is Manet’s son, Leon. Born out of wedlock to Suzanne Leenhoff, Leon, posed often for his father and was the subject in many of Monet’s paintings.

Adding Leon in the background of The Balcony slightly taints the sophisticated rigidity of the painting, but offers a connection to the artist that the viewer does not see within the subjects of the painting.