Édouard Manet - Victorine Meurent in the costume of an Espada 1862
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Victorine Meurent in the costume of an Espada 1862
165x127cm oil/canvas
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City
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From Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York:
Manet depicted model Victorine Meurent (1844–1928) in the guise of a male espada, or matador, borrowing her pose from a Renaissance print. Victorine’s shoes are unsuitable for bullfighting, and the pink cape that she flourishes is the wrong hue, but she carries off her role with panache. The backdrop reproduces a scene from Goya’s Tauromaquia series, celebrating the feats of bullfighters. When this painting was exhibited at the infamous Salon des Refusés of 1863, a commentator noted, "Manet loves Spain, and his favorite master seems to be Goya, whose vivid and contrasting hues, whose free and fiery touch he imitates."