Young Woman Reclining in Spanish Costume, 1862 by Édouard Manet

Manet's mania for things Spanish continues. In 1867, Gustave Courbet, upon seeing Manet's private exhibition in the shed next to his own, exclaimed, "What a lot of Spaniards!" Manet's Spanish period had reached its peak in 1862. It was then that he painted his Gypsy with a Cigarette, which was owned by his friend Edgar Degas, Le Ballet Espagnol and Lola de Valence, The Dancer Mariano Camprubi, Young Man in Costume of a Majo, Mile Victorine in the Costume of an Espada , and Young Man in Costume of a Toreador. The following year he painted La Posada.

The woman who posed for this painting was a friend of Felix Tournachon, better known as Nadar, the great photographer of the period, through whom we know all the prominent Parisians of his day. At the bottom of the canvas is the dedication, "A mon ami Nadar, Manet."