The name of the model for the work is unknown; she may be
Laure, the black woman holding a bunch of flowers in the same artist's Olympia.[1] The work is still linked with the "black beauties of Baudelaire"[2] in reference to his mistress Jeanne Duval, although Duval was
mixed-race rather than black.[3] Baudelaire and Manet became close friends, during which time he produced a portrait of Duval in 1862, entitled Baudelaire's Mistress. The poet was often in the painter's studio.[4]
La Négresse is mentioned in Manet's posthumous inventory in 1883 under number 46 and was owned by Éva Gonzalès-Guérard, then Auguste Pellerin, then Alexandre Louis Philippe Berthier, prince of Wagram. In 1913 it belonged to
Baron Herzog in
Budapest, from whom it was looted by Nazi troops.[5] The work passed through Berlin and
Honolulu between 1933 and 1959, before entering its present home. It appeared in volume 1 of the 1975 Rouart-Wilderstein catalogue under the reference number RW 68.[6]
Cachin, Françoise; Moffett, Charles S.; Bareau, Juliet Wilson (1983). Manet, 1832-1883 : Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris, 22 avril-1er août 1983, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 10 septembre-27 novembre 1983 (in French). [Paris]: Ministère de la Culture.
ISBN2-7118-0230-2.
OCLC9663346.
(in French) Adolphe Tabarant, Manet et ses œuvres, Paris, Gallimard, 1947, 600 p.
(in French) Adolphe Tabarant, Les Manet de la collection Havemeyer : La Renaissance de l'art français, Paris, 1930, XIII edition
(in French) Étienne Moreau-Nélaton, Manet raconté par lui-même, vol. 2, t. I and II, Paris, Henri Laurens, 1926.
(in French) Collectif RMN (Stéphane Guégan, Laurence des Cars, Simone Kelly, Nancy Locke, Helen Burnham, Louis-Antoine Prat – contributors; interview with Philippe Sollers), Manet inventeur du moderne, Paris, 2011, 297 p. (
ISBN978-2-07-013323-9).
Guégan, Stéphane; Des Cars, Laurence; Kelly, Simon R. (2011). Manet : inventeur du moderne : [exposition, Paris, Musée d'Orsay, 5 avril - 3 juillet 2011 (in French). Paris.
ISBN978-2-07-013323-9.
OCLC793112848.{{
cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (
link)