Despite the seemingly rapid brushwork and the summary treatment of detail, this painting was preceded by at least two drawings and an oil sketch. 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.
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Title:Madame Manet (Suzanne Leenhoff, 1829–1906) at Bellevue
Artist:Edouard Manet (French, Paris 1832–1883 Paris)
Date:1880
Medium:Oil on canvas
Dimensions:31 3/4 x 23 3/4 in. (80.6 x 60.3 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:The Walter H. and Leonore Annenberg Collection, Gift of Walter H. and Leonore Annenberg, 1997, Bequest of Walter H. Annenberg, 2002
Object Number:1997.391.4
the sitter, Paris (1880–97; sold to Camentron); [Gaston-Alexandre Camentron, Paris, 1897; sold on February 1, 1897, for Fr 500, to Durand-Ruel]; [Durand-Ruel, Paris, 1897; stock no. 4035; sold on November 2, 1897, for Fr 2,000 to Hugo von Tschudi on behalf of Liebermann; Max Liebermann, Berlin (1897–d. 1935; one of fourteen paintings deposited on his behalf by Walter Feilchenfeldt, Zürich, at Kunsthaus Zürich, from May 9, 1933 to January 24, 1938); 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 The Met, 1997–his d. 2002)
Berlin. Bruno and Paul Cassirer. "Collektiv-Ausstellung Edouard Manet, Claude Monet, Giovanni Segantini," March 2–April 6, 1899, no catalogue? (as "Dame im Garten") [see Echte and Feilchenfeldt 2011, vol. 1].
Amsterdam. Stedelijk Museum. "Honderd Jaar Fransche Kunst," July 2–September 25, 1938, no. 158 (lent by 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.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Public Parks, Private Gardens: Paris to Provence," March 12–July 29, 2018, unnumbered cat.
THIS WORK MAY NOT BE LENT, BY TERMS OF ITS ACQUISITION BY THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART.
Harry Graf Kessler. Journal entry. June 15, 1895 [published in Easton 2011], remarks that he has come across "a very pretty [painting by Manet] in the airiest, lightest colors of a young woman in a large straw hat".
Fritz Stahl. "Manet, Monet, Segantini." Berliner Tageblatt no. 114 (March 3, 1899) [see Echte and Feilchenfeldt 2011, vol. 1], describes her outfit as morning dress and a gardening hat; states that while Manet has captured her appearance and the surroundings, "er hat den lebendigen Menschen darüber vergessen" (he has forgotten the living aspect of it).
J[ulius]. N[orden]. "Berliner Kunstschau." Die Kunst-Halle 4 (March 15, 1899), p. 186 [see Echte and Feilchenfeldt 2011, vol. 1], notes that it is already completely painted in the Impressionist manner.
Hans Mackowsky. "Berliner Kunstbericht (Manet, Monet und Segantini)." Berliner Neueste Nachrichten no. 131 (March 18, 1899), p. 6, as "Frauenporträt"; notes the sitter's blue veil; calls it "ein Meisterstück an farbiger Lebendigkeit " (a masterpiece of colorful liveliness).
Hans Rosenhagen. "Bei Bruno und Paul Cassirer." Tägliche Rundschau no. 72 (March 25, 1899) [see Echte and Feilchenfeldt 2011, vol. 1], calls it "eine ganz wunderbare künstlerische Leistung" (a wonderful artistic achievement).
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.
Etienne 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 as "Frau Manet im Garten," among the pictures that Max Liebermann is leaving in Zurich for safe-keeping.
Paul Cassirer. Letter to Director Dr. [Wilhelm] Wartmann. May 2, 1933 [published in translation in Janda 2011], includes the picture in a list of fourteen paintings to be delivered the next day by Cassirer to the Kunsthaus Zürich for safekeeping for Max Liebermann; notes that the pictures are already insured for this purpose.
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 inThe 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 inToulouse-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 inToulouse-Lautrec: Paintings. Ed. Charles F. Stuckey. Exh. cat., Art Institute of Chicago. Chicago, 1979, p. 158.
Peter Krieger inMax Liebermann in seiner Zeit. Exh. cat., Nationalgalerie Berlin. Berlin, 1979, pp. 66, 69, 71 n. 26, fig. 12, discusses Hugo von Tschudi's letter to Durand-Ruel of June 25, 1897, that states a price of 1500 francs for it and notes Max Liebermann's interest in acquiring the picture; states that the low price would have been due to the picture's being of interest only to connoisseurs.
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 inMasterpieces of Impressionism & Post-Impressionism: The Annenberg Collection. Ed. Colin B. Bailey, Joseph J. Rishel, and Mark Rosenthal. 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.
Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born Before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 447, ill.
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 (The Met 1998.106); calls it more of a genre scene than a portrait.
Ira Berkow. "Jewels in the Desert." Art News 97 (May 1998), ill. p. 148 (color, installation photo).
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.
Colin B. Bailey inMasterpieces of Impressionism and Post-Impressionism: The Annenberg Collection. Ed. Susan Alyson Stein and Asher Ethan Miller. 4th rev. ed. [1st ed., 1989]. New York, 2009, pp. 16–21, no. 5, ill. (color), frontispiece (color detail).
Laird M. Easton, ed. Journey to the Abyss: The Diaries of Count Harry Kessler, 1880–1918. New York, 2011, p. 133 n., states that the work referred to in Kessler 1895 was "presumably" The Met's picture.
Kunstsalon Bruno & Paul Cassirer. Ed. Bernhard Echte and Walter Feilchenfeldt. Vol. 1, Die Ausstellungen 1898–1901. Wädenswil, Zürich, 2011, pp. 125–26, 133, 135, 139, 145, 148, 490, ill. p. 124 (color), as "Porträt Madame Manet in Bellevue," "Dame im Garten," and "Frauenporträt"; identify it as included in Berlin 1899; republish Stahl 1899, Norden 1899, Mackowsky 1899, and Rosenhagen 1899.
Annegret Janda in "Max Liebermann's Art Collection: A Reconstruction from Letters and Documents." Max Liebermann and International Modernism: An Artist's Career from Empire to Third Reich. Ed. Marion Deshmukh, Françoise Forster-Hahn, and Barbara Gaehtgens. New York, 2011, p. 102, publishes Cassirer 1933 in translation, where the painting is called "Mrs. Manet in the Garden".
Martin Faass inVerlorene Schätze: Die Kunstsammlung von Max Liebermann. Ed. Martin Faass. Berlin, 2013, p. 38, discusses it among the artworks Max Liebermann placed in his music room.
Angelika Wesenberg inVerlorene Schätze: Die Kunstsammlung von Max Liebermann. Ed. Martin Faass. Berlin, 2013, pp. 43, 47, quotes Max Liebermann's letter of October 31, 1897 to Max Linde in which he ironically calls it "eine Dame oder richtiger einen Strohhut im Grünen" (A Woman, or rather, A Straw Hat Outdoors).
Karl-Heinz Janda, Annegret Janda, and Monika Tatzkow inVerlorene Schätze: Die Kunstsammlung von Max Liebermann. Ed. Martin Faass. Berlin, 2013, p. 173, no. 113, ill. p. 173 (color), and fig. 68 (photograph of the painting hanging in Liebermann's music room), quote Max Liebermann's letter to Durand-Ruel of October 31, 1897, regarding its acquisition, and state that it left the Liebermann/Riezler Depot at the Kunsthaus Zürich on January 24, 1938; note that it was among the fourteen works on deposit under the title "Frau im Garten, Halbfigur" (Woman in Garden, Half-Figure).
Verlorene Schätze: Die Kunstsammlung von Max Liebermann. Ed. Martin Faass. Berlin, 2013, pp. 254–55, 268, ill. (diagram of photograph identifying pictures hanging in Liebermann's music room) and on cover (color, cropped), reproduces a letter from Walter Feilchenfeldt to Wilhelm Wartmann, then Director of the Kunsthaus Zurich, from May 2, 1933, with respect to the storage of fourteen paintings from the Liebermann collection, including this one as no. 5, "Frau Manet im Garten" (Madame Manet in the Garden); reproduces the deposit book for the paintings from the Kunsthaus Zurich, which includes it as "Frau im Garten, Halbfigur" (Woman in Garden, Half-figure).
Bärbel Hedinger inMax Liebermann: Die Kunstsammlung, von Rembrandt bis Manet. Ed. Bärbel Hedinger et al. Munich, 2013, pp. 11, 19, 26, 34, 38 n. 106, fig. 1 on p. 11 (in photograph of Liebermann from around 1930), states that it was forwarded to Käthe and Kurt Riezler in New York by the go-between Paul Cassirer even before the outbreak of World War II.
Michael Diers inMax Liebermann: Die Kunstsammlung, von Rembrandt bis Manet. Ed. Bärbel Hedinger et al. Munich, 2013, p. 80, fig. 1 on p. 79 (color).
Christina Feilchenfeldt inMax Liebermann: Die Kunstsammlung, von Rembrandt bis Manet. Ed. Bärbel Hedinger et al. Munich, 2013, p. 119.
Max Liebermann: Die Kunstsammlung, von Rembrandt bis Manet. Ed. Bärbel Hedinger et al. Munich, 2013, pp. 176, 184, 191, 196, 207, 273, 295 no. SL109, fig. 1 on p. 144 (color), ill. pp. 145, 250–51 (photographs of it hanging in Liebermann's music room around 1931), 236 (color), 273 (color), quote Liebermann letter to Max Linde, October 1897 (same as Wesenberg 2013); quote Liebermann letter to Adolf Jöhr, April 27, 1933, stating that he intends to exhibit his paintings (including this one) at the Kunsthaus Zürich; reproduce same letter from Feilchenfeldt to Wartmann from May 2, 1933, as in Faass, ed. 2013; provide a concordance in which it appears as both SL109 and Janda 64.
Bridget Alsdorf inCézanne and the Modern: Masterpieces of European Art from the Pearlman Collection. Exh. cat., Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology, University of Oxford. Princeton, 2014, p. 91, fig. 55 (color).
Dorothee Hansen inInventing Impressionism: Paul Durand-Ruel and the Modern Art Market. Ed. Sylvie Patry. Exh. cat., Musée du Luxembourg, Paris. London, 2015, pp. 158, 280–81 n. 42 [French ed., "Paul Durand-Ruel: le Pari de l'Impressionnisme," Paris, 2014, pp. 125, 223 n. 42].
Colta Ives. Public Parks, Private Gardens: Paris to Provence. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2018, pp. 121, 125, 184, fig. 119 (color).
Emily A. Beeny inManet Paintings and Works on Paper at the Art Institute of Chicago. Ed. Gloria Groom and Genevieve Westerby. Chicago, 2019, under no. 16 [https://publications.artic.edu/manet/reader/manetart/section/140046], compares its green backdrop to that of Manet's "Portrait of a Woman with a Black Fichu" (ca. 1878, Art Institute of Chicago) and "Jeanne (Spring)" (1881, J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles).
Scott Allan inManet and Modern Beauty: The Artist's Last Years. Ed. Scott Allan, Emily A. Beeny, and Gloria Groom. Exh. cat., Art Institute of Chicago. Los Angeles, 2019, p. 295 (under no. 35).
Emily A. Beeny inManet and Modern Beauty: The Artist's Last Years. Ed. Scott Allan, Emily A. Beeny, and Gloria Groom. Exh. cat., Art Institute of Chicago. Los Angeles, 2019, p. 294 (under nos. 31–32), discusses it in relation to the 1880 drawing study of his wife (The Met 1998.106).
Jennifer A. Thompson. "Old and New Worlds: Durand-Ruel and the International Market for Impressionism." Pioneers of the Global Art Market: Paris-Based Dealer Networks, 1850–1950. Ed. Christel H. Force. London, 2020, fig. 3.4, colorpl. 7.
Diana Seave Greenwald inManet: A Model Family. Ed. Diana Seave Greenwald. Exh. cat., Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Boston, 2024, p. 116.
Emily A. Beeny inManet: A Model Family. Ed. Diana Seave Greenwald. Exh. cat., Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Boston, 2024, p. 198 n. 73, suggests that the sitter is Madame Guillemet, rather than Suzanne Manet, noting Guillemet's visit to the Manets at Bellevue in 1880 and the impersonal description of the work in Suzanne's notebook of February 1897 as "la femme au chapeau de Belleville".
Isolde Pludermacher inManet: A Model Family. Ed. Diana Seave Greenwald. Exh. cat., Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Boston, 2024, p. 200 n. 21.
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).
This work may not be lent, by terms of its acquisition by The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
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