Despite the seemingly rapid brushwork and the summary treatment of detail, this painting was preceded by at least two drawings and an oil sketch. Manet's Impressionist style was always founded on careful study and planning. This is Manet's last portrait of his wife; it was painted at Bellevue, a suburb of Paris, where they spent the summer of 1880.

the sitter, Paris (from 1880); Max Liebermann, Berlin (by 1902–d. 1935; one of fourteen paintings deposited on his behalf by Walter Feilchenfeldt, Zürich, at Kunsthaus Zürich, from May 9, 1933); his widow, Martha Liebermann, Berlin, and/or their daughter, Mrs. Kurt (Käthe) Riezler (1935–38; painting remained at Kunsthaus Zürich until released to Riezler); Mrs. Kurt (Käthe) Riezler, Berlin, then New York (from 1938; probably sold to Rosenberg); [Paul Rosenberg, New York, until 1946; sold in February to Horowitz]; Mr. and Mrs. Vladimir Horowitz, New York (1946–72; consigned to Wildenstein in 1970 and sold on April 11, 1972 to Annenberg); Walter H. and Leonore Annenberg, Rancho Mirage, Calif. (1972–97; jointly with MMA, 1997–his d. 2002)

Amsterdam. Stedelijk Museum. "Honderd Jaar Fransche Kunst," July 2–September 25, 1938, no. 158 (lent from a private collection).

New York. Paul Rosenberg. "Masterpieces by Manet (1832–1883)," December 26, 1946–January 11, 1947, no. 9 (lent by Mr. and Mrs. Vladimir Horowitz, New York).

Philadelphia Museum of Art. "Masterpieces of Impressionism & Post-Impressionism: The Annenberg Collection," May 21–September 17, 1989, unnumbered cat.

Washington. National Gallery of Art. "Masterpieces of Impressionism & Post-Impressionism: The Annenberg Collection," May 6–August 5, 1990, unnumbered cat.

Los Angeles County Museum of Art. "Masterpieces of Impressionism & Post-Impressionism: The Annenberg Collection," August 16–November 11, 1990, unnumbered cat.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Masterpieces of Impressionism & Post-Impressionism: The Annenberg Collection," June 4–October 13, 1991, unnumbered cat.

Théodore Duret. Histoire d'Édouard Manet et de son œuvre. Paris, 1902, p. 263, no. 275, includes it among paintings of 1880–83, as in the collection of Max Liebermann, Berlin.

Étienne Moreau-Nélaton. Manuscrit de l'œuvre d'Édouard Manet, peinture et pastels. [1906], unpaginated, no. 288 [Département des Estampes, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris].

Théodore Duret. Manet and the French Impressionists. 2nd ed. [1st ed. 1910]. London, 1912, p. 243, no. 275.

A. Tabarant. Manet, histoire catalographique. Paris, 1931, p. 372, no. 322.

Paul Jamot and Georges Wildenstein. Manet. Paris, 1932, vol. 1, p. 168, no. 397; vol. 2, fig. 57.

Walter Feilchenfeldt. Letter to Dr. Wartmann. May 2, 1933 [published in "Max Liebermann und die französischen Impressionisten," Düsseldorf, 1997, p. 239], lists it among the pictures that Max Liebermann is leaving in Zurich for safe-keeping.

Gotthard Jedlicka. Édouard Manet. Zürich, 1941, ill. opp. p. 301.

A. Tabarant. Manet et ses œuvres. 4th ed. (1st. ed. 1942). Paris, 1947, pp. 385, 542, no. 347, fig. 347.

Drawings from the Collection of Curtis O. Baer. Exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum. Cambridge, Mass., 1958, p. 60, under no. 48, publishes a related drawing.

Sandra Orienti in The Complete Paintings of Manet. New York, 1967, p. 113, no. 309, ill.

Germain Bazin. Édouard Manet. Milan, 1972, p. 81, ill. [French ed., 1974].

Karl-Heinz Janda and Annegret Janda. "Max Liebermann als Kunstsammler." Forschungen und Berichte 15 (1973), pp. 106, 122 n. 65, p. 135, no. 64.

Denis Rouart and Daniel Wildenstein. Édouard Manet, catalogue raisonné. Paris, 1975, vol. 1, pp. 264–65, no. 345, ill.; vol. 2, p. 152, under no. 409.

Naomi E. Maurer in Toulouse-Lautrec: Paintings. Exh. cat., Art Institute of Chicago. Chicago, 1979, pp. 150–51, ill., compares it to portraits of women in gardens by Toulouse-Lautrec and Renoir.

Charles F. Stuckey in Toulouse-Lautrec: Paintings. Exh. cat., Art Institute of Chicago. Chicago, 1979, p. 158.

Eric M. Zafran. Master Drawings from Titian to Picasso: The Curtis O. Baer Collection. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Art, Washington. Atlanta, 1985, p. 140, fig. 24.

Colin B. Bailey in Masterpieces of Impressionism & Post-Impressionism: The Annenberg Collection. Exh. cat., Philadelphia Museum of Art. Philadelphia, 1991, pp. 10–11, 134, ill. (color and black and white), discusses several preparatory works for this picture as well as a possibly related portrait of Manet's mother, executed at the same time (location unknown; RW1346).

Jérôme Coignard. "Le Salon de peinture de Mr. et Mrs. Annenberg." Beaux arts no. 92 (July–August 1991), pp. 65, 72.

Ira Berkow. "Jewels in the Desert." Art News 97 (May 1998), ill. p. 148 (color, installation photo).

Gary Tinterow. "Recent Acquisitions, A Selection: 1997–1998." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 56 (Fall 1998), pp. 5, 48–49, ill. (color), notes the recent acquisition of one of several preparatory drawings for this painting (MMA 1998.106); calls it more of a genre scene than a portrait.

Melissa De Medeiros. "The Document as Voice: The Manet Archive of the Pierpont Morgan Library." Master's thesis, Hunter College, City University of New York, 2002, vol. 2, pp. 149, 167.

Gary Tinterow in Masterpieces of European Painting, 1800–1920, in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2007, pp. 102, 274, no. 93, ill. (color and black and white).

Colin B. Bailey in Masterpieces of Impressionism and Post-Impressionism: The Annenberg Collection. 4th rev. ed. [1st ed., 1989]. New York, 2009, pp. 16–21, no. 5, ill. (color), frontispiece (color detail).

Manet painted this picture during an extended stay, from June to November 1880, in the Parisian suburb of Bellevue, where he confined his painting to open-air studies in the garden. This profile, his last painting of his wife, appears, first, as an ink sketch illustrating Manet's letter of 1880 to Henri Guérard (RW599; private collection, Paris), and subsequently, as a black wash drawing on graph paper (RW409; private collection, Paris), as an ink drawing with her head turned to the right (RW425; Staatliche Graphische Sammlung, Munich), and finally, as an unfinished oil sketch for a painting (RW314, location unknown). The veil of Mme Manet's hat is lifted in each of the preparatory drawings. At the same time, Manet was working on a portrait of his mother, Eugénie-Désirée Manet (1811–1885) (RW346; private collection, Paris) facing left, and sketches for these two portraits appear juxtaposed in two of the drawings (the letter of 1880 and the ink sketch in Munich).