Édouard Manet

The Artist's Estate (sale: Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 4th-5th February 1884, no. 74)
Monsieur Camentron, Paris (purchased at the above sale; until at least 1902)
J.J. Gowan, Edinburgh
Francis Ginn Mills, USA (acquired in 1948)
John MacCamish, USA (acquired in 1967)
Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York (acquired in 1970)
Private Collection, USA
Sale: Phillips, London, 25th June 2001, lot 11
Acquired by the present owner in 2010

Cleveland, Cleveland Museum of Art, French Art since eighteen hundred, 1929
New York, Wildenstein & Co., Manet, 1948, no. 4
Houston, Museum of Fine Arts, From Gauguin to Gorki, 1960, no. 36

Théodore Duret, Histoire d'Edouard Manet et de son Œuvre, Paris, 1902, no. 14
Julius Meier-Graefe, Edouard Manet, Munich, 1912, illustrated p. 27
Étienne Moreau-Nélaton, Manet raconté par lui-même, Paris, 1926, vol. II, no. 15
Paul Jamot, Georges Wildenstein & Marie-Louise Bataille, Manet, Paris, 1932, vol. I, listed no. 31; vol. II, illustrated fig. 51
Alfred M. Frankfurter, 'Manet, First American Retrospective' in Art News, 20th March 1937, p. 14
Alphonse Tabarant, Manet et ses Œuvres, Paris, 1947, no. 23, illustrated p. 602
Merete Bodelsen, 'Early Impressionist Sales 1874-1894 in the Light of some unpublished Procès-verbaux' in The Burlington Magazine, June 1968, no. 74, pp. 331-348
Denis Rouart & Sandra Orienti, Tout l'œuvre peint d'Edouard Manet, Paris, 1970, no. 14
Denis Rouart & Daniel Wildenstein, Edouard Manet, Catalogue raisonné, Paris, 1975, vol. I, no. 49, illustrated fig. 49
Françoise Cachin, Manet, London, 1990, no. 12, illustrated p. 148

The canvas is lined. UV examination reveals small spots and lines of retouching in places, predominantly to the background sky. There are extremely fine scattered lines of barely visible craquelure. This work appears to be in overall good condition.
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Throughout his career, Edouard Manet continuously revisited the subject of portraiture in all its facets, allowing an engagement with his stylistic development from an early consultation of the Old Masters up to an impressionistic influence. La Femme aux chiens shows a clear influence of Vélazquez and Goya, whose paintings the artist had studied and admired in the Louvre. Spain and all things Spanish were very much en vogue in Paris during the Second Empire and a group of Spanish dancers performing at the Hippodrome served Manet as a continuous source of inspiration. As various members of the company feature in his masterpieces of the time, it is not unlikely that the woman in La Femme aux chiens was one of them.

Whilst the identity of the woman in the present work remains subject to speculation, she has a hauntingly strong presence and intense allure. Her confident bearing commands the viewers’ attention and the two large dogs she holds on a leash suggest her being independent and in full control. A soft warm gaze and relaxed posture counterbalance this and in the background, a woman pushing a pram hints at motherhood. Manet’s masterful skill in rendering the lively and intimate character of his subjects was partly achieved by adorning portraits with references of contemporary life. In doing so, he transformed this enduring medium into a snapshot of everyday life, vivid and uniquely tailored to the individual sitter. 

Seemingly painted en plein air, this marvellous portrait shows one of Manet’s preferred modes for portraiture. He sought for immediacy and spontaneity to capture modern life. Claude Monet reported that ‘Manet made things very difficult for himself: he had a laborious and careful method. He always wanted his paintings to look as if done at the first attempt; but often, in the evening, he scraped down his palette knife everything he had done during the day’ (quoted in Mary Anne Stevens, “Manet: Portraying life. Themes and Variations,” Manet: Portraying Life (exhibition catalogue), London, Royal Academy of Arts, 2013, pp. 20-21).