Édouard Manet

Mlle. Victorine in the Costume of an "Espada", 1862. Édouard Manet. Etching, aquatint, and bitten tone on laid paper. Rogers Fund, 1969.
Although Édouard Manet is better remembered for his paintings, he was also a prolific etcher and an early collaborator with Alfred Cadart, who he probably met through their mutual friend, the writer Charles Baudelaire. This print was included in an early project that the artist completed with Cadart, the 1862 album Eaux-fortes par Édouard Manet. The series included a total of nine etchings, six of which reprised the artist's paintings. Mlle. Victorine in the Costume of an "Espada" shows one of the artist's favorite models in Spanish costume, and relates to a painting of the same year (Mademoiselle V…in the Costume of an Espada). Manet translated the painting's earthy tones into a complex system of textures, achieved through fields of aquatint and densely etched lines.