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A woman with light skin sits facing us across a marble-topped table in a café in this vertical painting. Her body is angled slightly to our right, and she rests her right elbow, on our left, on the table. She leans her right cheek onto the back of her right hand as she gazes into the distance. She holds a cigarette in her other hand, which rests on the tabletop. Her pale pink dress has long sleeves with ruffles at the cuffs, and buttons down the front of the skirt can be seen under the table. A lace bow or ruffles cascade down at her neck. Straw-colored hair peeks out under a black hat encircled with a wide band of lace. A short, stemmed glass sitting on the table in front of her holds a small, round piece of fruit surrounded by caramel-colored liquid. The white marble tabletop is streaked with gray. The burgundy, patterned banquette she sits on takes up the bottom half of the composition, and wood paneling around a slate-gray metal grate fills the top half. Loose brushstrokes are visible throughout. The artist signed the work as if he had written his name on the surface of the table, near the front edge to our left, "Manet."

Edouard Manet

Plum Brandy, c. 1877

West Building, Main Floor — Gallery 89

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 73.6 x 50.2 cm (29 x 19 3/4 in.)

framed: 87.6 x 64.1 x 5.7 cm (34 1/2 x 25 1/4 x 2 1/4 in.)

Credit Line

Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon

Accession Number

1971.85.1

Artists / Makers

Edouard Manet (artist) French, 1832 - 1883

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
Read our full Open Access policy for images .

Inscription

lower left on table: manet

Provenance

From the artist, ca. 1881, to Charles Deudon [1832-1914]; by inheritance to his wife, Mme. Charles Deudon, Nice; sold by 1919 to (Paul Rosenberg et Cie., Paris).[1] Arthur Sachs [1880-1975], New York, Paris, and Cannes, by 1927 until at least 1948. (M. Knoedler & Co., London, New York and Paris); sold 1961 to Mr. Paul Mellon, Upperville, VA; gift 1971 to NGA.

[1] According to Anne Distel, "Charles Deudon (1832-1914): collectionneur." La Revue de l'Art no. 86 (1989): 63.

Associated Names

Deudon, Charles-Henri
Deudon, Charles-Henri, Mme
Knoedler & Company, M.
Mellon, Paul
Rosenberg & Co., Paul P.
Sachs, Arthur

Exhibition History

1880: Exhibition, La Vie Moderne, Paris, 1880, no. 4.

1884: Exposition Manet, Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1884, no. 86.[1]

1921: Exhibition of Paintings by the Great French Impressionists from the Collection of Monsieur Paul Rosenberg of Paris, Wildenstein & Co., New York, 1921-1922, no. 11.

1922: Exposition d'oeuvres de grands maîtres du dix-neuvième siècle, Paul Rosenberg, Paris,1922, no. 53.

1927: [Loan exhibition for the opening of the new building], Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 1927, no catalogue.

1929: Exhibition of French Painting of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 1929, no. 57, repro.

1932: Exhibition of French Art 1200-1900, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1932, no. 470.

1932: Exposition Manet, Musée de l'Orangerie, Paris, 1932, no. 64.

1934: XIX Esposizione Biennale Internazionale d'Arte, Venice, 1934, no. 10.

1937: Edouard Manet 1832-1883, Wildenstein & Co., New York, 1937, no. 24, repro.

1946: The Arthur Sachs Collection, California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, 1946-1947, no catalogue, repro. in Bulletin 4, no. 7 (November 1946): 62.

1948: A Loan Exhibition of Manet for the Benefit of the New York Infirmary, Wildenstein & Co., New York, 1948, no. 23, repro.

1955: Mostra di capolavori della pittura francese dell'ottocento, Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, 1955, no. 68, repro.

1962: Artmobile II ("Twelve Portraits: Delacroix to Gauguin"), sponsored by the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, 1962, no. 2.

1966: French Paintings from the Collections of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon and Mrs. Mellon Bruce, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1966, no. 40, repro.

1982: Manet and Modern Paris, National Gallery of Art, 1982-1983, no. 18, repro.

1983: Manet, Grand Palais, Paris; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1983, no. 165.

1986: Capolavori Impressionisti dei Musei Americani, Museo e Gallerie Nazionali di Capodimonte, Naples; Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan, 1986-1987, no. 25, repro.

1986: Gifts to the Nation: Selected Acquisitions from the Collections of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, National Gallery of Art, Washington, July-October 1986, unnumbered checklist, repro.

1986: Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art, Washington, State Hermitage Museum, Leningrad; State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow, January-May 1986, no. 15, repro.

1989: Impressionisti della National Gallery of Art di Washington, Ala Napoleonica e Museo Correr, Venice; Palazzo Reale, Milan, 1989, unnumbered catalogue, repro.

1990: Französische Impressionisten und ihre Wegbereiter aus der National Gallery of Art, Washington und dem Cincinnati Art Museum, Neue Pinakothek, Munich, 1990, no. 25, repro.

1992: From El Greco to Cézanne: Masterpieces of European Painting from the National Gallery of Art, Washington, and The Metroplitan Museum of Art, New York, National Gallery of Greece, Athens, 1992-1993, no. 43, repro.

1996: Manet, Fondation Pierre Gianadda, Martigny, Switzerland, 1996, no. 49, repro., as The Plum.

1996: The Rise of the Art World in America: Knoedler at 150, M. Knoedler & Company, New York, 1996-1997, unnumbered catalogue, repro. and back cover, as The Plum.

1998: Manet, Monet, and the Gare Saint-Lazare, Musée d'Orsay, Paris; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1998, no. 36, fig. 162.

1999: An Enduring Legacy: Masterpieces from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1999-2000, no catalogue.

2001: Paris-Barcelone, de Gaudi à Miró, Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris; Museu Picasso, Barcelona, 2001-2002, unnumbered catalogues, repros.

2006: Women in Impressionism: from Mythical Feminine to Modern Woman., Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen, 2006-2007, no. 48, repro.

2010: Bilder einer Metropole: Die Impressionisten in Paris [Images of a Capital - The Impressionists in Paris], Museum Folkwang, Essen, 2010-2011, no. 47, repro.

2011: Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; The National Art Center, Tokyo; Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art, 2011, no. 24, repro.

2015: Splendeurs et misères. Images de la prostitution, 1850-1910 [Easy Virtue. Prostitution in French Art, 1850-1910], Musée d'Orsay, Paris; Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, 2015-2016, no. 31, repro.

2019: Manet and Modern Beauty, The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago; J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, 2019 - 2020, no. 8, repro.

Exhibition History Notes

[1] Plum Brandy was displayed immediately to the left of the NGA painting The Melon (2014.18.29) in this exhibition.

Bibliography

1880: "Les petits salons a coté du grand salon." L'Artiste (July 1990): 32.

1902: Duret, Théodore. Histoire d'Edouard Manet et de son oeuvre.Paris, 1902: no. 227.

1910: Duret, Théodore. Manet and the French Impressionists. Translated by J.E. Crawford Flitch. London and Philadelphia, 1910: 245, no. 227.

1919: Duret, Théodore. Histoire d'Edouard Manet et de son oeuvre.Paris, 1919: no. 227

1920: "La Collection Deudon." Le Bulletin de la vie artistique (1 May 1920): 306 - 307, repro.

1926: Moreau-Nélaton, Etienne. Manet, raconté par lui-même. 2 vols. Paris, 1926: II: 53, 91, repro.

1927: Perkins, Harley. "Paintings by the Masters Lent for Fogg Opening." Boston Evening Transcript (18 June 1927): book section, 8, repro.

1927: Siple, Walter H. "The Opening Exhibition." The Arts XII, no. 1 (July 1927): repro. 38.

1931: Tabarant, Adolphe. Manet: histoire catalographique. Paris, 1931:308-309.

1932: Huyghe, Rene. "Manet, peintre." L'Amour de l'Art 13, no. 5 (May 1932): 176, 184, repro.

1932: Jamot, Paul, and Georges Wildenstein. Manet. 2 vols. Paris, 1932: 1: 98, 103, 156, no. 293.

1932: Jamot, Paul. "Le centenaire de Manet." Gazette des Beaux-Arts VIe period, VIII (July 1932): 51-56, repro.

1932: Wildenstein, Georges. "Paintings from America in the French Exhibition." The Fine Arts 18 (January 1932): 25, 54, repro.

1934: Bernardi, Marziano. Pittura e scultura alla XIX Biennale di Venezia. Turin, 1934: 37.

1937: Frankfurter, Alfred M. "Manet: The First American Retrospective." Art News XXXV, no. 25 (20 March 1937): 11-14, 24, repro.

1937: "Manet en Amérique." Beaux-Arts Magazine no. 224 (April 1937): 1, repro.

1939: Venturi, Lionello. Les archives de l'impressionnisme. 2 vols. Paris and New York, 1939: I: 152-155.

1944: Wilenski, R.H. Modern French Painters. London, 1944: pl. 10.

1946: Howe, Thomas Carr. "The Arthur Sachs Collection." Bulletin of the California Palace of the Legion of Honor. 4, no. 7 (November 1946): 61, repro.

1947: MacAgy, Jermayne. "The Café Guerbois." Bulletin of the California Palace of the Legion of Honor 4, no. 10 (February 1947): 83-84, repro.

1947: Tabarant, Adolphe. Manet et ses oeuvres. Paris, 1947: 314+

1952: Watt, Alexander. "Paris Commentary." The Studio 144 (October 1952): 121-122.

1955: "Note e Commenti: Pittori dell'Ottocento francese a Palazzo Strozzi a Florence." Emporium CXXI (June 1955): 264.

1957: Fénéon, Félix. "The Manet Retrospective (1884)." In "The Art Criticism of Félix Fénéon." Trans. by Francis Kloeppel. Arts 31, no. 4 (January 1957): 17.

1958: Richardson, John. Edouard Manet: paintings and drawings. London, 1958: no. 55, repro.

1960: Bouchot-Saupique, Jacqueline. "Etudes de quelques dessins de Manet faisant partie de l'ancienne collection Pellerin." Bulletin de la Société de l'Historie de l'Art Français (1960): 134.

1966: Gimpel, René. Diary of an Art Dealer. Translated by John Rosenberg. New York, 1966: 121.

1966: Kuh, Katherine. "Golden Loans for a Silver Anniversary." Saturday Review (19 March 1966): repro. p. 46.

1966: Neugass, Fritz. "Jubiläumsschau in der National-Galerie in Washington." Weltkunst XXXVI, no. 8 (15 April 1966): 336.

1966: Young, Mahonri Sharp. "The Mellon Collections: The Great Years of French Painting." Apollo 83 (June 1966): 426, repro.

1967: Orienti, Sandra. L'opera pittorica di Édouard Manet. Milan, 1967: no. 233, repro.

1968: Schneider, Pierre. The World of Manet, 1832-1883. New York, 1968: 141, repro. 148.

1970: Orienti, Sandra. The Complete Paintings of Manet. London, 1970: no. 233, repro.

1972: Bazin, Germain. Edouard Manet. Milan, 1972: 9, 57.

1972: "Recent Accessions of American and Canadian Museums." The Art Quarterly XXXV (Summer 1972): 189, repro. 202.

1973: Fischel, Lilli. "Von der Bildform der französischen Impressionisten." Jahrbuch der Berliner Museen 15 (1973): 71-72, repro. pl. 8.

1973: Hofmann, Werner. Nana: Mythos un Wirklichkeit. Cologne, 1973: repro. 11.

1973: Rewald, John. The History of Impressionism. New York, 1973: 400-401, repro.

1975: European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 212, repro.

1975: Mauner, George. Manet: Peintre-Philosophe; A Study of the Painter's Themes. University Park, PA, and London, 1975: 159.

1975: Rouart, Denis and Daniel Wildenstein. Edouard Manet, catalogue raisonné 2 vols. Lausanne and Paris, 1975: I: no. 282.

1980: Kelder, Diane. The Great Book of French Impressionism. New York, 1980: 82, 116, 282, 436. repro. 119.

1980: Rewald, John. The History of Impressionism. 4th Rev. ed. New York, 1980: 399 - 401, repro.

1982: Ross, Novelene. Manet's 'Bar at the Folies-Bergère' and the Myths of Popular Illustration. Ann Arbor, 1982: 49

1984: Oberthur, Mariel. Cafes and Cabarets of Montmartre. Salt Lake City, 1984: 26, repro.

1984: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 449, no. 648, color repro.

1985: European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 246, repro.

1985: House, John. Impressionist Masterpieces, National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1985:32, repro.

1986: Bernard, Bruce. The Impressionist Revolution. London, 1986:55, repro.

1989: Distel, Anne. "Charles Deudon (1832-1914), collectionneur." Revue de l'art no. 86 (1989): 63, repro.

1989: Distel, Anne. Les collectionneurs des impressionnistes. Amateurs et marchands. Paris, 1989:158, repro.

1990: Französische Impressionisten und ihre Wegbereiter aus der National Gallery of Art, Washington und dem Cincinnati Art Museum. Exh. cat. Neue Pinakothek, Munich, 1990: no. 25, repro.

1991: Darragon, Eric. Manet. Paris, 1991: repro. 196.

1991: Kopper, Philip. America's National Gallery of Art: A Gift to the Nation. New York, 1991: 277, 278, color repro.

1991: Néret, Gilles. Toulouse-Lautrec. Paris, 1991: 78, repro.

1992: Carr-Gomm, Sarah. Manet. London, 1992: 122, repro.

1992: Feist, Peter H. Malerei des Impressionismus 1860-1920. 2 vols. Cologne, 1992: 1:165, repro.

1992: Stevenson, Lesley. Manet. New York, 1992: 147, repro.

1993: Manoeuvre, Laurent. Manet-Paris. Paris, 1993: 50, repro.

1993: Perutz, Vivien. Edouard Manet. London and Toronto, 1993: repro. pl. 56.

1994: Kranzfelder, Ivo. Edward Hopper, 1882-1967: Vision der Wirklichkeit. Cologne, 1994: 150, repro.

1994: Rubin, James H. Manet's Silence and the Poetics of Bouquets. Cambridge, 1994: repro. 35.

1995: Reff, Theodore, and Florence Valdès-Forain. Jean-Louis Forain: The Impressionist Years: The Dixon Gallery and Gardens Collection. Exh. cat. Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam; The Burrell Collection, Glasgow; Fondation de L'Hermitage, Lausanne; Galerie Hopkins-Thomas, Paris. Memphis, 1995: 86, repro.

1996: Landi, Ann. "150 Years of Helping Shape a Nation's Taste." New York Times (December 1, 1996): 43, repro.

1996: Rathbone, Eliza E., et al. Impressionists on the Seine: A Celebration of Renoir's Luncheon of the Boating Party. Washington, 1996: repro. 147.

1997: Kelder, Diane. The Great Book of French Impressionism, 1997, no. 99, repro.

1997: Southgate, M. Therese. The Art of JAMA: One Hundred Covers and Essays from The Journal of the American Medical Association. St. Louis, 1997: 102-103, color repro.

2003: Mena Marqués, Manuela B. Manet en el Prado. Exh. cat. Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, 2003: 94, repro.

2004: Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 364, no. 299, color repro.

2004: Wagstaff, Sheena, et al. Edward Hopper. Exh. cat. Tate Modern, London, Museum Ludwig, Cologne, 2004-2005. London, 2004: 17, repro. fig. 5.

2005: Fahy, Everett, ed. The Wrightsman Pictures. New Haven, 2005: 418-419, under cat. 120, fig. 4.

2008: Fowles, Frances, with contributions by Vivien Hamilton and Jennifer Melville. Impressionism & Scotland. Exh cat. National Galleries of Scotland, 2008: 39-40, repro.

2011: Valdès-Forain, Florence. "Le plus incisif des Impressionistes." In Jean-Louis Forain (1852-1931): "La Comédie parisienne". Exh. cat. Petit Palais, Paris, 2011: 36, color repro.

2013: Lipiński, Filip. "Hopper wirtualny: Obrazy w pamiętającym spojrzeniu." Ph.D. dissertation. Uniwersytet Adam Mickiewicz, Poznań, 2013. Toruń, 2013: 451, 525, 628, color fig. 216.

2023: Smee, Sebastian. "Reflecting on 'Manet/Degas.'" The Washington Post (1 October 2023): H: 1, repro., 9.