Manet, Édouard (1832-1883)
Victorine Meurent
c.1862
Oil on canvas, 42.9 x 43.8 cm
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Victorine-Louise Meurent (1844-1927) was a professional artist’s model and painter in her own right, exhibiting work at the Paris Salon in 1876 and after. This portrait is Manet’s first painting featuring Meurent; she modelled for, and was arguably an artistic collaborator in, many of the artist’s most ambitions paintings including “Street Singer” (66.304), “Olympia,” and “Le déjeuner sur l’herbe” (both in the Musée d’Orsay, Paris). Extant details of Meurent’s own biography and artistic career are few, and her identity has often regrettably become conflated with the figures she portrayed. (MFA)
See also:
• Meurent, Victorine (1844-1927)