Detail of Madame Edouard Manet by Manet in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, March 2011

Madame Édouard Manet (Suzanne Leenhoff, 1830–1906)

Édouard Manet
(French, Paris 1832–1883 Paris)

Date: ca. 1873

Medium: Oil on canvas

Dimensions: 39 1/2 x 30 7/8 in. (100.3 x 78.4 cm)

Classification: Paintings

Credit Line: Bequest of Miss Adelaide Milton de Groot (1876–1967), 1967

Accession Number: 67.187.81

Gallery Label: Manet undertook only six portraits of his wife, the Dutch pianist Suzanne Leenhoff, in the years after their marriage in 1863. Half were left unfinished, including the present work, providing rare insight into the artist’s technique. He sketched the figure and background with broad strokes, then turned to the facial features, scraping off the face at least twice, before eventually abandoning the picture.

Text from: www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online/search/436957