Portrait of Mademoiselle Claus

Painted in 1868 and now at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, Portrait of Mademoiselle Claus depicts Fanny Claus, a violinist who was engaged to marry Manet's friend the painter Pierre Prins and who appears in The Balcony alongside Berthe Morisot in the same year. The two portraits — this Oxford canvas and the Balcony figure — together document Claus as a recurring presence in Manet's circle during the productive years of the late 1860s. The Ashmolean, Oxford's principal art museum, holds this as part of its collection of 19th-century French works that complements the major London holdings.

The portrait is direct and psychologically clear — a young woman rendered with Manet's characteristic economy of means. The face is built with warm and cool flesh-tone patches, the setting minimal. The composition focuses entirely on the sitter's psychological presence, with no elaborate accessories or backgrounds to distract. The paint is lean and confident, applied with the assurance of Manet's mature portrait manner.