RENOIR'S POSITION IN 1870 In addition to having two pictures on the exhibition walls, Renoir played another starring role at the Salon of 1870. In Henri Fantin-Latour's group portrait A Studio in the Batignolles [FIGURE 44], showing Manet at work sur- rounded by his friends and supporters, Renoir appears standing in the center background, his head precisely framed by the secular halo of a gilt picture frame. Alone of the figures in the oil, he wears a hat, and his lean features gaze intently at the canvas on which Manet is working. Given the solemn tone of Fantin- Latour's painting, it is not surprising that Bertall caricatured it in 1870 as "Jesus Painting among His Disciples" or "The Divine School of Manet," religious picture 2 by Fantin-Latour ? Renoir's presence in Fantin-Latour's picture identified him clearly as one of Manet's admirers and followers. This loosely structured grouping had been recognized by a number of critics at the Salons of the two previous years; in 1869 Duranty had named the artists the "School of the Batignolles," taking the name from the area in northwestern Paris where Manet had his studio and where the Cafe Guerbois—a regular meeting place for the group—was located.73 Manet was, of course, the most celebrated member of the group; by 1870 even the critics who most disliked his work felt forced to discuss it at length. Of the other painters in Fantin-Latour's canvas, Monet was perhaps the most notorious—most of his pictures had been rejected by the Salon jury over the past four years—yet he is placed at the far right margin of the composition. It is not known why Fantin-Latour gave Renoir so prominent a role, but his presence here enshrines his position in the "School of the Batignolles." Viewed in broader terms, Renoir's position and career in 1870 can be understood in a number of different ways. His work highlighted his links with Courbet and Manet, and Fantin-Latour's picture placed him firmly in Manet's camp. Renoir, however, did not adopt the overtly confrontational strategies that, in their different ways, characterized both Courbet's and Manet's art, nor did he cultivate the aggressively bohemian lifestyle that contributed to Monet's notori- ety in these years. 9