Gypsy with a Cigarette
This conversation is connected to Gypsy with a Cigarette.
Édouard Manet painted Gypsy with a Cigarette around 1862, during the early years of his career when he was absorbing influences from Velázquez and Goya and painting subjects drawn from the margins of Parisian life. A woman leans back with a cigarette between her lips, one arm raised behind her head, wearing a gold-orange shawl over a red skirt, with a white horse visible behind her. The pose is confident and direct — she's looking right at the viewer. Manet showed this kind of subject at a moment when the Salon expected mythological nudes and historical scenes, and the casualness of the figure was part of the provocation.