‘Oh gosh, that’s exciting’: rediscovered chalk drawing of child attributed to Manet

Exclusive: Work, whose subject resembles street urchin in masterpiece by artist, discovered in private collection

A red chalk drawing of a crouching child, spotted in a private Italian collection, has been attributed by an art historian to the French modernist painter Édouard Manet.

The child, whose identity has yet to be established, resembles a street urchin in the Manet masterpiece The Old Musician, in which he sought to show the humanity of homeless and marginalised people.