Young Woman Reclining in Spanish Costume, 1862–63
Oil on canvas, 37 5/16 x 44 3/4 in. (94.7 x 113.7 cm )
Bequest of Stephen Carlton Clark, B.A. 1903
1961.18.33
Although he did not regard himself as an Impressionist, Manet was widely admired by this group of younger artists for his daring style and subject matter, which he publicized through frequent exhibition. Manet displayed Young Woman Reclining in March 1863 with thirteen other works at the Gallery Martinet in Paris on the boulevard des Italiens. It has been suggested that the sitter is the studio model Victorine Meurent, who posed for a number of Manet's works, including the Olympia, exhibited at the Salon of 1865. Here she wears a man's Spanish costume, an act of cross-dressing practiced in the nineteenth century by members of the flourishing demimonde in Paris out to challenge bourgeois conventions. Incorporating attributes of both genders, the model's provocative double identity mirrors the duality of her passive pose and direct, aggressive gaze.
 |
 |
 |