Reclining Young Woman in Spanish Costume

Artist: Édouard Manet (French, 1832–1883)

1862–63

European Art

On view, 2nd floor, European Art

Manet was a dedicated student of earlier European painting and, most especially, an admirer of Spanish art and culture. The languorous pose and costume of the female model in this work are based on a famous painting by Francisco de Goya, Clothed Maja (ca. 1803, Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid). The playful cat and the tuffeted daybed, however, firmly place the painting (and viewer) back in Manet’s studio. An inscription in the lower right dedicates the painting “To my friend Nadar.” This refers to the photographer, caricaturist, and novelist Félix Nadar, whose studio housed the first exhibition of the “Impressionists” in 1874. Manet never exhibited with the group but was an important influence on their art.

Medium

Oil on canvas

Dimensions

unframed: 37 5/16 × 44 3/4 in. (94.7 × 113.7 cm)

Credit Line

Bequest of Stephen Carlton Clark, B.A. 1903

Accession Number

1961.18.33

Culture

French

Period

19th century

Classification

Paintings

Disclaimer

Note: This electronic record was created from historic documentation that does not necessarily reflect the Yale University Art Gallery’s complete or current knowledge about the object. Review and updating of records is ongoing.

Provenance
The artist; given to Gaspard-Félix Tournachon (1820–1910), called “Nadar,” Paris; sale, Nadar, Paris, November 11-12, 1895, no. 60; Auguste Pellerin (1853–1959), Paris; Eduard Arnhold (1849–1925), Berlin by 1902. Fine Art Associates, New York, by 1951; sold to Knoedler and Company, New York, January 9, 1951; sold to Stephen Carlton Clark, New York, February 2, 1951; bequeathed to the Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Conn., 1963
Bibliography
  • Jean-Paul Bouillon, Manet to Bracquemond: Newly Discovered Letters to an Artist and Friend (London: Ad Ilissvm, an imprint of Paul Holberton Publishing, 2020), 23, fig. 19
  • Pamela Franks, Jessica Sack, and John Walsh, "Looking to Learn, Learning to Teach," in "Teaching with Art," special issue, Yale University Art Gallery Bulletin (2013), 42–43, fig. 4
  • Michael Conforti et al., The Clark Brothers Collect: Impressionist and Early Modern Paintings, exh. cat. (Williamstown, Mass.: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 2006), 188, 190–91, 316, 336, fig. 152–53
  • Susan B. Matheson, Art for Yale: A History of the Yale University Art Gallery (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 2001), 156, 158, fig. 151
Object copyright
No Copyright - United States
Additional information

Subject

cats daybeds fans (costume accessories)

Inscriptions

Signed at LR: A mon ami Nadar / Manet

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