Young Woman Reclining in Spanish Costume

A woman stretches across a red daybed, one hand raised above her head and a fan resting near her shoes. Her pale trousers form a long diagonal beneath a short black jacket. At the lower right, a cat bends over an orange, bringing movement into the arranged pose. Édouard Manet's Young Woman Reclining in Spanish Costume, dated 1862–63, belongs to Yale University Art Gallery.^[1] The eye moves between the face, bright clothing and objects scattered below.

A Raised Hand and an Extended Body

Above the waist, the bent arm makes an angular opening beside the woman's head. The elbow projects towards the left, then the forearm returns across the top of the dark hair. Her fingertips touch the head lightly. Below the waist, the body extends towards the opposite end of the sofa.

The other hand hangs over the nearer armrest. Its pale fingers descend against red upholstery, with a dark ring visible on one finger and an ornament around the wrist. The face turns slightly towards the left, although the eyes remain directed towards the viewer.

The upright head, raised elbow and hanging fingers interrupt the long stretch of the legs. The tall back of the daybed curves around the head and shoulder, enclosing the more angular upper pose. Its lower edge continues beneath the pale legs, holding the figure within a dark red outline.

Black Clothing and Pale Trousers

The jacket makes a compact dark area around the woman's upper body. Pale edging follows its opening, and a light inner neckline separates the dark cloth from the neck. Small, uneven marks gather on the sleeve beside the resting hand. At the shoulder, blue-black passages give way to warmer darks.

The trousers occupy a much larger light area. Grey passages run beside cream and white, bending around the thighs and narrowing near the knees. Some strokes follow the length of the legs; others cross them at an angle. A brighter folded band runs across the waist, where the pale clothing meets the black upper garment.

Below the knees, the stockings have a quieter, more continuous pale appearance. Dark shoes mark the far end of the reclining body. The jacket's dense dark passages, the trousers' broad light strokes and the narrower stockings each remain legible while keeping the marks of paint in view.

The Red Daybed

The daybed takes up nearly the whole width of the canvas. Its back rises in a padded curve at the right, while the far arm makes a lower roll behind the woman's legs. The nearer armrest bends around the hanging hand and descends towards the seat.

Its red is varied throughout. Near the shoulder, pale reddish strokes cross darker hollows and buttoned indentations. Across the seat, longer sweeps gather into folds beneath the legs. A fringe hangs along the lower front, where thin downward marks contrast with the larger curves above. Small feet meet the grey floor beneath it.

The plain brown field behind the daybed leaves much of the upper left empty, making the crowded arrangement at the right more apparent. The room is suggested through the model, furniture and props rather than described as a complete interior.

Goya and a Spanish Costume

Susan D. Greenberg connects the painting with Goya's Clothed Maja and interprets Manet's masculine Spanish costume as part of the work's deliberate staging. For her, the clothing and pose call attention to the construction of the image rather than presenting the model as an unselfconscious subject.^[3] The Prado dates Goya's Clothed Maja to 1800–1807.^[4]

The distinction between the face and the costume is particularly evident in Manet's picture. The head occupies a small area high on the right, while the pale trousers spread across the centre. The outfit therefore receives attention both as clothing worn by a person and as a large painted shape. The small hair ornament, open neckline and hand positions give the viewer further details to consider alongside it.

The title identifies a costume, allowing the picture to be approached as a performance within the studio. This interest also connects it with Victorine Meurent in the costume of an espada, another work in which dress gives a model a represented role.

The Fan, the Cat and Two Oranges

An opened fan rests near the shoes. Its pale leaves spread into an irregular wedge, divided by dark ribs and edged below with green. The short radiating lines differ from the longer strokes on the trousers. The fan also interrupts the meeting of shoes, stockings and seat, giving the eye a small, sharply patterned object among larger areas of cloth.

The two oranges occupy separate positions on the floor. One sits alone near the lower centre, while the cat bends over the other beside the sofa's right foot. Against the subdued floor, their warm colour remains conspicuous. The isolated fruit creates an interval between the furniture and the lower edge; the other is caught within the cat's compact, busy shape.

Black, grey and pale strokes turn abruptly around the animal's face and body. Its tail rises close to the right edge. The creature seems active beside the much larger, relatively still human figure. The orange links that movement with the separate fruit farther left.

Nadar and the Unknown Sitter

The lower-right dedication names Manet's friend Nadar. Rouart and Wildenstein record that Manet gave him the painting; their catalogue also lists its appearance at Galerie Martinet in 1863 and at Manet's independent exhibition in 1867.^[2] Greenberg identifies Nadar as the photographer and caricaturist Félix Tournachon and places the Martinet showing in March 1863, among fourteen works by Manet.^[3]

Nadar's name identifies the recipient, while the sitter remains uncertain. Greenberg reports suggestions that she was a mistress of Nadar or Victorine Meurent, but concludes that her precise identity is unknown.^[3] The inscription therefore gives a firm personal connection without supplying a secure name for the woman. Her visible ornaments, clothing and gestures describe how she appears in the painting; they cannot by themselves establish her biography.

Bracquemond's Print after the Painting

Félix Bracquemond translated the composition into a print. The Petit Palais holds an impression dated 1867, Femme en costume espagnol d'après Manet, made in etching and aquatint.^[5] It presents the reclining figure in reverse: the head and tall sofa back are now on the left, while the legs extend towards the right. The fan and both oranges move with this reversal.

A curtain descends along the print's left side, adding a large vertical beside the rounded back of the sofa. Fine lines describe the cloth, while dense curved hatching builds the furniture's padded surface. The pale trousers are left more open, with fewer lines crossing their broad light areas. The sofa's fringe becomes a close succession of short downward strokes, and the cat is gathered into a small knot of dark lines near the curtain.

The print makes the arrangement recognisable through different marks. Its added curtain does not, by itself, prove that Manet's canvas was trimmed or establish an earlier state. Reversal, line and the remaining areas of pale paper give familiar forms a different emphasis.

A Watercolor with a Different Attribution

A small watercolor at Yale has also been associated with the painting. Greenberg's 2001 catalogue reproduced it as a preparatory study by Manet.^[3] Yale now lists that sheet, accession 1959.63, as Copy of Reclining Young Woman in Spanish Costume, by an unknown artist after Manet.^[6] It therefore cannot securely demonstrate a stage in Manet's preparations.