Portrait of Lise Campineanu, 1878. Edouard Manet. Oil on canvas. Purchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust.
This portrait of Lise Campineanu, a Romanian girl of about six or seven years old, reveals the bold, freely applied brushstrokes and flat patches of pure color for which Edouard Manet is celebrated.
The painting was commissioned by Georges de Bellio, the sitter’s great-uncle and Manet’s personal physician, while Lise was in Paris visiting the 1878 world’s fair with her parents. She is presented as a well-to-do young lady wearing a gold bracelet, fingerless gloves, and a fashionable dress with satin ribbons.
