The exhibition of late Manet at the Getty is brighter and gayer than his more classical palette but it still holds many charms. One painting in particular, a portrait of the opera singer Emilie Ambre dressed as Carmen hailing from Philadelphia reminded me of how sloppily I now dress for flamenco class when in fact I should be going all out with the mantilla and flowers. When I dance the guajira, the fan dance, I do not look like Emilie. When he finished the portrait Manet wrote to a friend, "Come up tomorrow on your way home, I've a primadonna for you to meet". Manet died of complications of syphilis, this painter of modern life whose admiration of shapely legs under a Parisian cafe table must have haunted him when they had to amputate his leg just before his death. The gaiety of the images in this show then belies the declining state of his health, almost as if it was a counterweight.