Méry Laurent in a Black Hat

Méry Laurent was Manet's closest friend and confidante in his final years, and he painted her repeatedly from the late 1870s until his death in 1883. A celebrated courtesan with genuine artistic intelligence, Laurent was also close to Mallarmé and kept a salon that brought together the leading figures of Parisian artistic and literary life. The black hat of this portrait — a relatively small, intimate canvas now in Dijon — speaks to her position as a trendsetter whose fashion choices were noted and imitated. Manet's numerous images of Laurent constitute a sustained meditation on a friendship that sustained him through illness.

Manet captures Laurent with the economy of a painter who has drawn and painted the same face many times — the features are rendered with assured, minimal strokes that convey likeness without laboring over it. The contrast between the black hat and the pale, luminous face is characteristic of his late style's preference for strong tonal juxtapositions.