The Player fife, Manet showed the appeal of "the decorative effect of a large single figure, with emphatic contours and placed before a background surface." Against a monochrome background, the figure is boldly highlighted with a reduced palette of colors mostly laid on in a thick impasto which brings forth the very sharp black of the jacket and shoes, along with the red pants, white strap, spats and so on. Thus, the figure stands "firm, smooth and alive." Moreover, as in Velázquez's work, Manet also portrayed an anonymous character, a teenage musician of the band of the Imperial Guard of Napoleon III, who was sent to Manet by commander Lejosne, "treated like a grandee of Spain." Additional models may have also posed for the figure: the likenesses of both Léon Leenhoff and Victorine Meurent have been seen in the boy's face and figure. In Popular Culture A fictional tale concerning the painting forms the subject of an episode ("Art for Hogan's Sake") of the American television series "Hogan's Heroes", in which the work is stolen from the Louvre by a Nazi general and returned by the Allied POW's working with the French underground. References 1866 paintings 19th-century portraits Paintings in the collection of the Musée d'Orsay Musical instruments in art Portraits by Édouard Manet