Detail of Nana by Manet in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, December 2023

Title: Nana

Artist: Edouard Manet (French, Paris 1832–1883 Paris)

Date: 1877

Geography: Country of Origin France

Culture: French

Medium: Oil on canvas

Dimensions: 60 5/8 × 45 1/4 in. (154 × 115 cm)
Framed: 74 × 59 5/8 × 6 5/16 in., 121.3 lb. (188 × 151.5 × 16 cm, 55 kg)

Classification: Paintings

Credit Line: Hamburger Kunsthalle, acquired 1924 (HK-2376)

At the end of Émile Zola’s novel L’assommoir, a character named Nana appears, having been thrust into prostitution. In Zola’s Nana, published a few years later, she has become a high-class courtesan, as Manet portrays her here. Nana addresses the viewer with a mischievous smile while applying her makeup. She is the protagonist, anchored at the center of the picture, while her patron—cast as a supporting character—looks on from the margin. As the model for Nana, Manet turned to Henriette Hauser, the mistress of the Prince of Orange and an aspiring actress, whom he had painted before. Rejected at the 1877 Salon, the painting was exhibited in the window of Chez Giroux, a shop selling “trinkets, paintings and fans,” where it was a great success.

Text from: www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/844698