https://artmuseum.princeton.edu/art/collections/objects/32381#information

I was not familiar with this picture before seeing it mentioned earlier this evening in Richard Wollheim's "Painting As An Art".

Now I am eager both to see and learn more about it for a couple of reasons.

In the Wollheim, "Gypsy With A Cigarette" is dated to the early 1860s, the author noting this early period as one where Manet was not drawing attention to his painterly activity on the canvas.

The Princeton museum, as well as discarding "gypsy" in favour of "woman" in the title, dates the picture to the alte senties or early eighties. Looking closely at the picture online, i thought that Wollheim's description of the surface was not borne out: I was interested to read that there is uncertainty about whether the picture was in fact completed. I really would have to see the picture for myself to decide on the value of Wollheim's judgement.

I'm also fascinated by the cigarette. Even if the picture dates from 1880, this date is still about four decades before it became acceptable for French women to smoke in public.

My interest in the cigarette is not purely historical. I gave up smoking years ago and would encourage other to do likewise, yet I still feel entranced by the cigarette's modern elegance (Note to self: read Richard Klein's "Cigarettes Aer Sublime".)

As I look at the web image, I'm just delighted by it as a picture!

#Manet #WomanWithACigarette #Art #Painting #FraenchArt #19thCenturyArt #Smoking #Cigarettes #RichardWollheim #PaintingAsAnArt