[3] Nevertheless, Courbet recognized that Bruyas's patronage was essential to his pursuit of Realist art, writing on their relationship: "It was inevitable because it is not we who have encountered each other but our solutions".

Although the work purports to show Courbet's arrival, presumably fresh off the coach in the background, there is sufficient reason to doubt such a meeting occurred as represented.

An alternative interpretation is that Courbet, with his box of paints and a parasol strapped to his back, is met by Bruyas and his servant, Calas, upon returning from a day of plein air sketching in the countryside.

[5]: 38  The lighter tones adopted illustrate Courbet's effort to faithfully convey the bright, warm atmosphere of Montpellier, and more generally that of France's Mediterranean coastline.

[3]: 36  Courbet portrays the countryside in the background with great detail, likely working off of a previous plein air sketch of the scene.

While likely coming off as unpleasant to viewers at the time, Courbet's preference for individuating each element may have been in order to more faithfully illustrate reality as it is lived and experienced, that is, in a free, natural, and not always cohesive manner.

[4]: 209–210  The work would later appear as the cover of Champfleury's essay "Le Juif-errant", and depicts two burghers (bourgeois men) meeting the Wandering Jew alongside a country road.

"[4]: 216 Courbet incorporated the Wandering Jew into two other works: The Apostle, Jean Journet, Setting Off for the Conquest of Universal Harmony (1850) and A Beggar's Alms (1868).

[7]: 721  Courbet, in contrast, appears taller, more assertive, and closer to the viewer, taking up as much of the composition as Bruyas, Calas, and the dog combined.

By surrounding the piece with other works commissioned by him, across a range of subjects, Bruyas sought to reassert his image as an influential benefactor of the arts.

Those who visited the Musée Fabre would include Vincent Van Gogh and Paul Signac, with The Meeting drawing praise from the latter as "an exquisite landscape... sharp and lively".