Explore the Themes of this artwork, Mademoiselle V. in the Costume of an Espada.
The painting, like many works by Manet, addresses the theme of artifice. The scene shown in the painting is fictional, with Meurent having posed in a studio. The themes of "dressing-up" and "make-believe" are central to Manet's work. In an effort to shift focus from subject matter to interest in the painting alone, Manet pushed for his work to be recognized as fiction. The title of the painting itself highlights this theme of artifice by explicitly revealing that Meurent is a model posing in a costume.Throughout Manet's early paintings, he made clear that he borrowed motifs, settings, and figures adopted from earlier works by other artists. He especially drew from the works of old masters such as Titian, whose Venus of Urbino informed Manet's Olympia. The combination of artifice with borrowings from the works of earlier artists is distinctive of Manet's style.
Olympia Venus of Urbino