A Garden Nook at Bellevue, 1880
Oil on canvas, 91 x 70 cm
Signed lower right: Manet
Rouart/Wildenstein 347

In the summer and autumn of 1880 Manet and his family stay at Bellevue not far from Paris, where he had rented a house in the Rue des Gardes 41. There, he undergoes medical treatment for his ever more painful back ailment, which robs him of many working hours each day. Nevertheless he is ceaselessly active, and nothing of his personal trouble gets reflected in his work, which radiates brilliance and serenity. In the summer of 1874 he had become an open-air painter, not least under Monet?s influence, in Argenteuil, and this is also decisive in his work here. His place of work is the sun-drenched garden by the house, and he likes to have it animated by a young female figure. In our picture it is Marguerite, the sister of Madame Guillemet, whom Manet had painted with her husband in the greenhouse. She is crouched on the lawn with a book on her knees. Attention is focused on her by the diagonals formed by watering-cans and rakes, which Manet even honoured with a special picture. The girl, however, gains no individuality, but is only the central focus of the summer scene.