Masked Ball at the Opera

Painted in 1873-1874 and now at the National Gallery of Art, Masked Ball at the Opera depicts the famous annual masquerade at the Paris Opéra — a social event at which social hierarchies were temporarily suspended under the cover of costume and mask. The canvas shows a press of black-coated men among women in costume, the social mix of the ballroom floor captured with Manet's characteristic directness and ambiguity. The subject allowed him to explore an unusual social space where the boundaries between respectable and disreputable were deliberately blurred.

The composition is unusual for Manet — a crowd scene rather than individual figures, the press of people creating a dense, shallow pictorial space. The repeated black top hats and coats of the men create a formal pattern across the canvas. The women in coloured costumes provide chromatic punctuation. The handling is more rapid and sketch-like than his most finished works, suggesting the scene's movement and noise.