Woman with a Cat

The woman on the sofa is Suzanne Leenhoff, Manet's wife, and the black and white cat asleep in her lap is theirs, a cat called Zizi. Suzanne was a Dutch-born pianist who first came into his life as his piano teacher. They became lovers in secret and married in 1863, the year after his father died. Manet painted this around 1880 to 1882, and it is probably his last portrait of her. He never signed it, and much of the canvas still shows its grey priming, so it may be unfinished. She leans her head on one hand, lost in thought, and her pink dress is set down in broad, angled strokes. The painter saved his closest attention for the cat, whose fur and face are built up in dense, many-coloured paint.