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Woman with a Cigarette
Edouard Manet French
Not on view
Manet never exhibited this painting, and no record of its original title or date has been discovered. The work most likely reflects the contemporary fascination with Spanish culture and may have been inspired by Georges Bizet’s Carmen, the opera about a woman who worked in a cigarette factory, which premiered in Paris in 1875. With a cigarette dangling from her lips, one hand on her hip, and the elbow of her other arm leaning on the back of a horse, Manet depicted this woman as someone outside the rigorously coded formality of Parisian high society. Edgar Degas bought the painting in 1896.
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