Manet's Model: The Story Behind a Famous Face

Meurent emerged as Manet's favorite model during the 1860s and early 1870s, posing for works including his renowned Olympia and Luncheon on the Grass , both in the collection of the Musée d'Orsay, Paris.

This portrait is thought to be Manet's first portrait of Victorine from about 1862.

Six years later Manet featured Meurent once again for a contemporary, out-of-doors scene The Railway set at the famous Gare Saint–Lazare in Paris, although the station itself is all but obscured from view by the figures, the railway steam, and the iron fence. In this composition, Meurent's appears well-dressed, and comfortably balancing a puppy, open book and fan on her lap. According to the curators at the National Gallery of Art, the child model was "the daughter of a fellow painter who allowed Manet to use his garden to create The Railway."

The differences in the figures' age, dress, body language and even their relationship to each other adds an air of mystery to the painting. Curious too, is the immediacy of Meurant direct glance which seems to have shifted a moment earlier from her book directly towards us, the viewer.

This was last work by Manet in which Meurent appears. Apparently, they fell out over her desire to become an artist in her own right. The talented and ambitious Meurent had begun pursuing her studies to Manet's disappointment. She later led a successful career as a painter. Sadly, almost none of her work exists today. A single painting, only recently discovered, hangs in the Musée municipal d'Art et d'Histoire de Colombes [Colombes History Museum] in France.