Detail of the Young Lady in 1866 by Manet in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, December 2023

Title: Young Lady in 1866

Artist: Edouard Manet (French, Paris 1832–1883 Paris)

Date: 1866

Medium: Oil on canvas

Dimensions: 72 7/8 x 50 5/8 in. (185.1 x 128.6 cm)

Classification: Paintings

Credit Line: Gift of Erwin Davis, 1889

Accession Number: 89.21.3

Manet’s frequent model, Victorine Meurent, who had recently posed for the brazen nudes in Olympia and Déjeuner sur l’herbe, here appears relatively demure. However, her silk dressing gown, the small bouquet of violets she holds to her nose, and the man’s monocle hanging from her neck may signal a recent romantic encounter. Exhibited at the 1868 Salon, the painting was viewed by critics as a rejoinder to Gustave Courbet’s provocatively erotic Woman with a Parrot (1866) and may have inspired a sketch by Degas in which a parrot is perched on a model’s hand.

Text from: www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/436964