Portrait of a Woman with a Black Fichu

Portrait of a Woman with a Black Fichu (1878), at the Art Institute of Chicago, is one of Manet's many portraits of unidentified women whose status as portrait subjects derives from their role as models and social acquaintances rather than as prominent public figures. The black fichu—a triangular scarf worn around the neck and shoulders—provides a strong formal element that Manet exploits compositionally while also anchoring the image in a specific moment of fashion history. The Art Institute of Chicago's holding of this work places it within one of the world's great collections of French nineteenth-century painting, where its quiet authority can be measured against Manet's more celebrated canvases.

The black fichu creates a strong tonal anchor against which the face and any lighter passages of the composition are measured. Manet's handling of the dark fabric would deploy the graduated tonal variations he mastered for depicting black—never simply flat or dead, but modulated with subtle colour inflections that maintain the material's visual life. The face is rendered with his characteristic fluid directness.