On view
William R. Elfers Gallery
Woman with a Cigarette,
ca. 1878–80
This painting of a woman with her left hand on her hip, her head leaning casually against her right hand, and a cigarette dangling from her lips was found in Manet’s studio after his death. Its enigmatic, compressed setting has prompted many to ask if Manet left the painting unfinished. It was neither exhibited nor titled in his lifetime. Purchased by the artist Edgar Degas, the painting was identified in early sales as Bohemian Woman, Mexican Woman, and Indian Woman Smoking a Cigarette. In the 1930s, scholars began calling it Gypsy with a Cigarette, reflecting Manet’s use of the term “gypsy” (gitano) in other titles. The painting’s changing title charts a Euro-American impulse to classify Manet’s depiction of a woman of color and situate her as an outsider to French society. Acknowledging the derogatory nature of the previous title, as well as the woman’s uncertain identity, the Museum retitled the painting in 2023.
More About This Object
Information
ca. 1878–80
Possibly, Baskirtseff; his sale, Drouot, Paris, 4-5 February 1884, no. 53. [1]
Durand-Ruel, New York, USA and Paris, France;
Sold by the above at Dubourg & Delvigne to Hilaire Germain Edgar Degas, 1896;
Purchased from the above by Charles and Rose Vildrac, at Georges Petit, Paris, 26-27 March 1918, no. 78;
Possibly, Durand-Ruel, New York, USA and Paris, France.
Strang, Oslo, Norway.
Galerie Barbazanges, Paris, France.
Acquired from the above by Meyer Goodfriend, New York;
Acquired from the above by J. Cheim, 1923, American Art Association sale, New York;
Thomas Marland, possibly through or from the above, New York, by 1932;
Baron E. V. de Heydt, Ascona, Switzerland, by 1937; [2]
J. K. Thannhauser, Berlin, Germany and New York, USA, possibly on commission by the above; [3]
Acquired from the above by Archibald S. Alexander, Bernardsville, New Jersey, USA, ca. 1959; [4]
By bequest from the above to the Princeton University Art Museum
Notes:
[1] Denis Rouart and Daniel Wildenstein, Edouard Manet: Catalogue Raisonneì (Lausanne and Paris, 1975), Vol. 1: p. 58 , no. 46; p. 59 (illus.).
[2] Seligmann archives, Archives of American Art, Box 212
[3] Zentralarchiv des Internationalen Kunsthandels E. V. (ZADIK), Cologne
[4] Thannhauser Gallery, New York, stockbooks
- Paul Jamot and Georges Wildenstein, Manet, (Paris: Les Beaux-arts, édition d'études et de documents, 1932)., Vol. 1: p. 158, no. 304. Vol. 2: p. 59, fig. 144
- Edouard Manet, 1832-1883: a retrospective loan exhibition for the benefit of the French Hospital and the Lisa Day Nursery, March 19 through April 17, 1937, (New York: Wildenstein and Co., 1937)., p. 35, no. 22; p. 68 (illus.)
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Anne Coffin Hanson, Édouard Manet: [Exhibition] Philadelphia Museum of Art, November 3-December 11, 1966; the Art Institute of Chicago, January 13-February 19, 1967, (Philadelphia, PA: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1966).
, p. 58-59; cat. no. 34 (illus.) - Sandra Orienti, The complete paintings of Manet, (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1967)., p. 90, no. 41
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Hedy B. Landman, European and American art from Princeton alumni collections, (Princeton, NJ: Art Museum, Princeton University, 1972).
, p. 30, no. 30 (illus.) - Chronique des arts: supplément à la Gazette des beaux-arts, no. 1334 (Mar., 1980)., p. 43, no. 219bis
- "Acquisitions of the Art Museum 1979," Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 39, no. 1/2 (1980): p. 40-63., p. 56
- Denys Sutton, "Edouard Manet: the artist as dandy", Apollo 118, no. 260 (Oct. 1, 1983): p. 330-341., p. 334; fig. 8
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Juliet Wilson-Bareau, Françoise Cachin, Charles S. Moffett, Michel Melot, et al., Manet, 1832-1883: Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris, April 22-August 8, 1983, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, September 10-November 27, 1983 (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art: Abrams, 1983).
, no. 26 (illus.) - Marilyn Brown, Gypsies and other bohemians: the myth of the artist in nineteenth-century France, (Ann Arbor, MI: UMI Research Press, 1985)., fig. 47; p. 75-76; p. 206, note 5
- Allen Rosenbaum and Francis F. Jones, Selections from The Art Museum, Princeton University, (Princeton, NJ: The Art Museum, Princeton University, 1986), p. 32 (illus.)
- Opera news (Mar. 14, 1987)., Cover illustration
- Richard Wollheim, Painting as an art, (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1987)., p. 168; no. 137 (illus.)
- T.A. Gronberg, Manet: a retrospective, (New York: H.L. Levin Associates: Distributed by Macmillan Pub. Co., 1988)., pl. 8 (color); p. 340-41
- Gitane: inspiratrice, (Paris: Beaux-arts magazine, Publications Nuit et jour, 1989)., p. 37 (illus.)
- Françoise Cachin, Manet, (Paris: Chêne, 1990)., p. 35
- Eric Darragon, Manet, (Paris: Citadelles, 1991)., p. 109 (fig. 60)
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Ann Dumas, "Degas as a collector: Degas and his contemporaries", Apollo 144, no. 414 (Sept. 1, 1996): p. 3-72.
, p. 44; p. 71 - Colta Ives et al., The Private Collection of Edgar Degas: A Summary Catalogue, (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1997)., p. 88, cat. no. 800 (illus.)
- Sabine Fehlemann, Imaginationen: von Ruysdael bis Manet, Chagall, Kandinsky: zum 100-jährigen Jubiläum: von der Heydt-Museum Wuppertal, 22. September 2002 bis 12. Januar 2003: Ausstellungskatalog, (Wuppertal: Von der Heydt-Museum, 2002)., p. 32-33 (illus.)
- Gilles Neret, Edouard Manet, 1832-1883: The First of the Moderns, trans. Chris Miller, (Cologne: Taschen, 2003)., p. 8, 17
- Princeton University Art Museum: Handbook of the Collection (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2007), 24 (illus.)
- Stéphane Guégan, Manet: the man who invented modernity, (Paris: Gallimard: Musée d’Orsay, 2011)., p. 174, fig. 132; p. 277, cat. no. 84
- Akiya Takahashi, et. al., "Les 'scenes de la vie parisienne' de Manet: d'un atelier a l'autre", 国際シンポジウムエドゥアール・マネ再考 : 都市の中の芸術家 : 報告書 / Kokusai Shinpojūmu Eduāru Mane Saikō: toshi no naka no geijutsuka: hōkokusho, (Tokyo: Mitsubishi Ichigōkan Bijutsukan, 2011)., p. 34-60; p. 46-47
- Stéphane Guégan, Manet, Inventeur du Moderne, (Paris: Gallimard: Musée d’Orsay, 2011).
- Adriana Pontón Castro, Gitana con pandereta: La bohémienne au tambour de basque de Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot, (Bogota, Colombia: Banco de la República, Museo Botero, 2012).
- Princeton University Art Museum: Handbook of the Collections (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Art Museum, 2013), p. 298
