法國巴黎奧賽美術館藏品| Collection of Musee d’Orsay, Paris

《吹笛子的少年》描繪了衞軍樂隊年輕的士兵正在吹短笛的場景，畫中的少年神情專注，以右腳為重心站立，左腿向外伸展孩子的面容，上身自然向左傾斜，手指在短笛的孔洞上按壓，他謹慎地吹奏着一支木製小笛，，悠揚的音符流瀉而出，體現畫作的動感；二維的平面畫法和簡單的構圖背景，使這幅畫在同時期的畫作中獨樹一幟；平淡無奇的側影與略顯僵硬的背景，形成鮮明的對比。
整個畫面達到了形與色的統一，畫中沒有陰影，沒有視平線，沒有輪廓線，以最小限度的主體層次來作畫，否定了三度空間的深遠感。色彩方面，黑色的上衣、紅色的褲子、金色的笛套與白色的鞋套，構成強烈的視覺衝擊。
Young Flautist depicts a young regimental flautist playing the piccolo. In the picture, the young man is depicted with a concentrated expression. He is leaning on his right leg while standing, with his left leg stretching outward and his body naturally tilted to his left. With his fingers pressed on the keys on the flute, the boy is playing a wooden piccolo with great care, as if melodic music is floating in the air. The vivid representation of the flautist endows the picture with a dynamic quality. This masterpiece of Manet stood out among the works of his contemporaries, in the sense that it is distinctly rendered in a simple composition with flat planes, while the image of the young man agilely leaning to one side forms a telling constrast with the somewhat stiff background.
As a whole, the picture is endowed with a sense of harmony, with forms and colours perfectly blended with each together. The composition is neatly rendered without the use of shades, eye level or contour lines. With minimal use of layering in presenting the figure and the background, the painting is rendered as a two-dimensional pictorial space without evoking any sense of depth. Yet, striking visual effects are created with the use of contrasting colours, epitomized by the black jacket, red pants, golden flute case and white spats.