NARRATOR:
In this portrait of his wife, Édouard Manet suggests his interest in fashion and his commitment to portraiture. The warm, creamy tones of Suzanne Leenhoff’s face are magnificently rendered against the muted, non-descript background. Her chest and gently sloping shoulders are evoked with a few bold brushstrokes.
The embellished black comb, headband, necklace and ruffled collar all reflect Manet’s sustained attention to the details of a woman’s toilette, even in a rapidly sketched portrait such as this.
To hear more about that relationship, press 3281.
Madame Manet
1874-1876
Édouard Manet (French, 1832-1883)
On View
Manet met his future wife, Suzanne Leenhoff, in 1850, when she arrived in his parents’ household as a piano teacher. Before their marriage, Suzanne served as the model for Manet’s first history painting, and she continued through the succeeding decades to sit for private portraits like this one, painted in the mid-1870s. Capturing the quiet beauty and famously even temper of its subject, this picture also demonstrates a new freshness and informality of handling: Manet’s response to the emerging Impressionist style, particularly the work of Berthe Morisot.
Details
- Artist Name: Édouard Manet (French, 1832-1883)
- Title: Madame Manet
- Date: 1874-1876
- Medium: Oil on canvas
- Dimensions: 23-7/8 x 20 in. (60.6 x 50.8 cm)
- Credit Line: Norton Simon Art Foundation, Gift of Mr. Norton Simon
- Accession Number: M.1973.4.P
- Copyright: © Norton Simon Art Foundation
Object Information
The artist; gift to;
George Moore (1852–1933), London, by bequest in 1933 to;
Lady Cunard (Maud Alice Burke, 1872–1948)), London, by bequest to;
Sir Robert Abdy, consigned 30 September 1952 to [Arthur Tooth & Sons], but sold 17 November 1952 to;
[Wildenstein & Co., New York, sold 1956 to];
Norton Simon, gift 1973 to;
Norton Simon Art Foundation
George Moore (1852–1933), London, by bequest in 1933 to;
Lady Cunard (Maud Alice Burke, 1872–1948)), London, by bequest to;
Sir Robert Abdy, consigned 30 September 1952 to [Arthur Tooth & Sons], but sold 17 November 1952 to;
[Wildenstein & Co., New York, sold 1956 to];
Norton Simon, gift 1973 to;
Norton Simon Art Foundation
Tableaux de M. Édouard Manet
- Paris, Avenue de l'Alma, 1867-05 to 1867-05
Art Loan Exhibition
- Dublin, Leinster Lecture Hall, 1899-04-01 to 1899-04-08
Exhibition of Masters of French 19th Century Painting
- New Burlington Galleries, 1936-10-01 to 1936-10-31
Nineteenth Century French Paintings
- The National Gallery, London, 1943-02 to 1943-03
Édouard Manet 1832-1883
- Philadelphia, Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1966-11-03 to 1966-12-11
- Art Institute of Chicago, 1967-01-13 to 1967-02-19
[on loan]
- Chrysler Museum, 1980-11-07 to 1981-07-21
Manet: Three Paintings from the Norton Simon Museum
- The Frick Collection, 2019-10-16 to 2020-01-05
Manet's Philosophers on Loan from the Art Institute of Chicago
- Norton Simon Museum, 2021-11-19 to 2022-02-28
The Two Sides of the Medal: French Painting from Gérôme to Gauguin
- Detroit Institute of Arts, 1954 to 1954
Reinstallation of South Wing
- Norton Simon Museum, 1993-10-07 to 1995-08-13
Three Centuries of French Art: Selections from The Norton Simon, Inc. Museum of Art and The Norton Simon Foundation_1
- California Palace of the Legion of Honor, 1973-05-03 to 1976-06-15
Gaze: Portraiture After Ingres
- Norton Simon Museum, 2009-10-30 to 2010-04-05
- Moreau-Nélaton, Étienne, Catalogue manuscrit de l'oeuvre de Manet, no. 106
- Meier-Græfe, Julius, Edouard Manet, fig. 125
- Daragon, Éric, Manet, fig. 91
- Moreau-Nélaton, Étienne, Manet raconté par lui-même, n.1 (no. 14), fig. 114 pp. 86, 95
- Tabarant, Adolphe, Manet: Histoire catalographique, no. 120 pp. 161, 578
- Jamot, Paul; and Georges Wildenstein, Manet, vol 1, p. 135, no. 144; vol II. fig. 163 p. 135
- Tabarant, Adolphe, Manet et ses oeuvres, fig. 123 pp. 80, 129-130, 134, 536, 606
- Sutton, Denys, Apollo, fig. 7 p. 171
- Pool, Phoebe; and Sandra Orienti, The Complete Paintings of Manet, no. 107 p. 96
- Venturi, Marcello; and Sandra Orienti, L'opera pittorica di Edouard Manet, no. 107 p. 96
- Rouart, Denis; and Sandra Orienti, Tout l'oeuvre peint d'Edouard Manet, no. 106 p. 96
- Zola, Emile, Revue du XXe siécle, 1867, p. 59
- The Times, 1899, p. 5
- Duret, Théodore, Histoire d'Édouard Manet et son oeuvre. Avec un catalogue des peintures et des pastels, 1902, no. 105 p. 37
- Waldmann, Emil, Kunst and Künstler, 1913, pp. 43, 52
- Courthion, Pierre, Manet reconté par lui-même et par ses amis, 1953, pp. 96, 97; p. 53
- Rouart, Denis; and Daniel Wildenstein, Edouart Manet, 1975, no. 116 p. 113
- Trotter, Bob, The Virginia Pilot, 1980,
- Masterpieces from the Norton Simon Museum, 1989, p. 124
- Armstrong, Carol, Manet/Manette, 2002, fig. 12 pp. 21, 24
- Brettell, Richard R. and Stephen F. Eisenman, Nineteenth-Century Art in the Norton Simon Museum, volume 1, 2006,
- Campbell, Sara, Collector Without Walls: Norton Simon and His Hunt for the Best, 2010, cat. 30 p. 247
- Pullins, David, Manet: Three Paintings From the Norton Simon Museum, 2019, fig. 24 p. 6, pp. 11-14, 17, 18, pp. 63-79, p. 81, 92; p. [10] (ill.), p. [62] (ill.), p. 81 (ill.)
- Diana Seave Greenwald, Manet: A Model Family, 2024, Fig. 30 pp. 58-60, p. 59 (ill.)
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