El Pífano (retrato de Manet) was inspired by the French artist Edouard Manet's painting with the same title from 1866. During the late 1970's, Mario Lavista embarked on a series of solo flute pieces in which he used a different member of the flute family in each work. He wrote El Pífano in 1989 with this same idea in mind. It was commissioned by the Venezuelan flutist Luis Julio Toro, and Lavista dedicated the piece both to him and to Mexican flutist Guillermo Portillo.