Street Singer

Painted in 1862 and now at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Street Singer depicts a woman leaving a café-concert with a bundle of cherries in hand, having apparently helped herself as she departed — the gesture is both casual and slightly transgressive. The model was Victorine Meurent, who also posed for Luncheon on the Grass and Olympia, and the subject — a working-class performer on the street — is characteristic of Manet's interest in marginal but emblematic urban figures. The painting uses the French tradition of café-concert painting while completely transforming it through directness of observation and confident paint handling.

Victorine's figure is placed in shallow outdoor space, her pale grey dress against the more complex textures of the café doorway behind her. The cherries she holds provide a warm colour note. Manet renders her direct, slightly quizzical gaze with confident brevity. The paint surface is lean and direct, the form established with economy. The outdoor light is handled without the detailed atmospheric description of academic tradition.