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Street Singer
Edouard Manet (French, 1832–1883)
about 1862
Medium/Technique
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
171.1 x 105.8 cm (67 3/8 x 41 5/8 in.)
Credit Line
Bequest of Sarah Choate Sears in memory of her husband, Joshua Montgomery Sears
Accession Number66.304
CollectionsEurope
ClassificationsPaintings
Awkwardly clutching her guitar and a parcel of cherries, a street musician hitches up her skirt to facilitate her steps as she exits a Parisian café. Manet captures the very moment she emerges: the hinged café doors have swung backward following her exit, revealing seated customers and a waiter in a crisp white apron. Antonin Proust recalled Manet, as the quintessential "flâneur," bearing witness to this scene while strolling the city streets, even allegedly asking the performer to pose for him. When she refused, Manet restaged the moment in his studio, casting in her place his favorite model, Victorine Meurent (46.846). The instantaneity of the depicted moment impelled the critic Émile Zola to commend Manet’s ability to “state frankly what he sees.” Other critics were unimpressed by Manet’s paint handling, with Paul Mantz declaring that “because of an abnormality we find deeply disturbing, the eyebrows lose their horizontal position and slide vertically down the nose, like two commas of shadow.”
InscriptionsLower left: ed. Manet
Provenance1872, sold by the artist to Durand-Ruel, Paris; 1872, sold by Durand-Ruel to Ernest Hoschedé (b. 1837 - d. 1891), Paris [see note 1]; June 5-6, 1878, Hoschedé sale, Hotel Drouot, Paris, lot 42, to Jean-Baptiste Faure (b. 1830 - d. 1914), Paris; about 1895, sold by Faure to Durand-Ruel, Paris [see note 2]; about 1899, sold by Durand-Ruel to Sarah Choate Sears (b. 1858 - d. 1935), Boston [see note 3]; 1935, by inheritance to her daughter, Helen Sears (Mrs. J. D. Cameron) Bradley (b. 1889 - d. 1966), Boston [see note 4]; 1966, bequest of Sarah Choate Sears to the MFA. (Accession Date: May 19, 1966)
NOTES:
[1] Ernest Hoschedé, a Parisian department store magnate, was a friend and important patron of many of the Impressionists. His sale in 1878 was the result of bankruptcy. For the results of this sale, see Merete Bodelsen, "Early Impressionist Sales 1874-94 in the light of some unpublished 'procès verbaux,'" Burlington Magazine vol. 110, no. 783 (June, 1968), pp. 339-40.
[2] Lionello Venturi, "Archives de l'Impressionisme: Lettres de Renoir, Monet, Pissaro, Sisley et autres. Mémoires de Paul Durand-Ruel. Documents" (Paris and New York, 1939), vol. 2, p. 191.
[3] Paul Durand-Ruel recommended the painting to the Havemeyer family on February 3, 1899; they did not acquire it, and Mrs. Sears purchased it thereafter. See Alice Cooney Frelinghuysen et al., Splendid Legacy: The Havemeyer Collection (New York, 1993), p. 225.
[4] Sarah Choate Sears bequeathed the painting to the MFA, subject to her daughter's life interest. It was accessioned by the MFA after the death of Mrs. Bradley.
NOTES:
[1] Ernest Hoschedé, a Parisian department store magnate, was a friend and important patron of many of the Impressionists. His sale in 1878 was the result of bankruptcy. For the results of this sale, see Merete Bodelsen, "Early Impressionist Sales 1874-94 in the light of some unpublished 'procès verbaux,'" Burlington Magazine vol. 110, no. 783 (June, 1968), pp. 339-40.
[2] Lionello Venturi, "Archives de l'Impressionisme: Lettres de Renoir, Monet, Pissaro, Sisley et autres. Mémoires de Paul Durand-Ruel. Documents" (Paris and New York, 1939), vol. 2, p. 191.
[3] Paul Durand-Ruel recommended the painting to the Havemeyer family on February 3, 1899; they did not acquire it, and Mrs. Sears purchased it thereafter. See Alice Cooney Frelinghuysen et al., Splendid Legacy: The Havemeyer Collection (New York, 1993), p. 225.
[4] Sarah Choate Sears bequeathed the painting to the MFA, subject to her daughter's life interest. It was accessioned by the MFA after the death of Mrs. Bradley.