The Equestrienne

Manet's painting of his sister-in-law Suzanne Leenhoff's niece — the 'Equestrienne' shows a woman on horseback in the Bois de Boulogne — belongs to his engagement with outdoor leisure subjects during the 1870s. Equestrian portraits had been a prestige genre since Van Dyck, and Manet's version demythologises the format: the rider is a modern Parisian woman in contemporary dress, the park a fashionable public space rather than a grand estate. The work connects to his interest in the urban recreational culture of the Second Empire and early Third Republic.

The canvas captures the horse in motion, with Manet's loose brushwork suggesting the musculature and the gleam of the coat more effectively than academic finish would allow. The background foliage is indicated broadly, consistent with his plein-air practice of subordinating environment to figure.