The suicide by Manet

Mondays with Edouard Manet! 
This is certainly not your typical "impressionist" work of art. In fact, the Suicide (Le Suicidé), seems to raise more questions than answers: Was this a depiction of a real suicide? If so, who was it and when and where? If not, what on earth possessed Manet to slip into such a morbid world, however briefly?

Bührle Foundation, Zurich, Switzerland, 1877-1881