 This portrait-study has always been dated to circa 1870. Its size
is akin to some of Manet's late pastel portraits of women, as
indeed is the head-and-shoulders presentation. But the sitter's
identity has remained elusive. She has been thought to be the
actress Jean Demarsy which is clearly impossible. And the suggestion
that the model is Mme. Bourclin should
also be discarded: because the portrait was bought by M. Bourdir
at the Vente Manet of 1884 (lot 31) is insufficient reason to
conclude that the sitter was his wife.
The forms have been quickly indicated and then abandoned in
the state of an esquisse. The classic contrapposto pose-three-
quarter shoulders and full-face-shows the near-oval of the head
split into lit and partly shadowed halves. Loosely tied blue ribbon
and brownish hat add an elegant touch to this Parisienne, whose
gentle, contemplative gaze does not meet ours. Her oval face and
heavily lidded eyes can also be found in Jeune Femme dans un
Jardin that once belonged to Camille Pissarro. This last
was also left as an esquisse, and its date variously given as 1874
(Tabarant) and 1878 (RW). Assuming that the same sitter appears
in both paintings, could costume-dating also help to bring them,
together?
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