Woman with Fans

Manet drew to a close a long series of "women on a sofa" with this picture from 1873. His model is Nina de Callias (1844-1884), a capricious woman, alternately elated and depressed, with a neurotic temperament that alcohol soon led her to insanity and a premature death at the age of thirty-nine. Although her real name was Marie-Anne Gaillard, and she was also called Nina de Villard, she was known paradoxically by the name of a very transitory husband, Hector de Callias, a writer and journalist for the Figaro. At the time of this portrait, Nina was barely thirty years old, and used to host one of the most brilliant and artistic salons in Paris.