Édouard Manet
Today we start another special monthly feature. For the next four Sundays we will present masterpieces from a museum which happens to be the world's first university museum. Its first building was erected between 1678–1683 to house the cabinet of curiosities that Elias Ashmole gave to the University of Oxford in 1677. Of course, we’re talking about the Ashmolean Museum :) Enjoy!
The Portrait of Mlle Claus was painted in the autumn of 1868. It is closely connected with one of Manet’s greatest masterpieces, The Balcony. The composition is heavily indebted to Goya’s Majas on the Balcony.
Fanny Claus (1846-1877), the seated figure, was a concert violinist and a friend of Manet’s wife. The figure sketchily indicated on the right is Berthe Morisot, who was an accomplished artist and later married Manet’s brother, Eugène. In the final painting, Morisot is shown seated at the centre and Fanny Claus stands behind her.
At an early stage Manet set aside this sketch and began work on the second canvas. The sketch remained in Manet’s studio and was bought at Manet’s sale in 1884 by the American portrait painter John Singer Sargent, whose own work was much influenced by Manet’s.