Description
Woman with Fans is a portrait Édouard Manet painted in 1873: a dark-haired woman in a black dress lies on a pale blue-green sofa, rests her head on her hand and looks us straight in the eye, while Japanese fans hang on the gold-brown wall behind her. The original, oil on canvas measuring 113.5 x 166.5 cm, belongs to the Musée d’Orsay in Paris. Our painter makes it for you by hand in oil on canvas, in eight landscape sizes from 45 x 30 to 155 x 105 cm, or made to measure. Once the lady in black is finished, you see her in a photograph before she ships.
| Title: | Woman with Fans |
| Other titles: | La Dame aux éventails (French title) · Lady with Fans |
| Painter: | Édouard Manet (1832–1883) |
| Year painted: | 1873 |
| Original size: | 113.5 cm x 166.5 cm (height x width) |
| Original technique: | Oil on canvas |
| Painting style: | Realism and Impressionism |
| Located at: | Musée d’Orsay, Paris, France |
| Our reproduction: | Hand-painted in oil on canvas, 8 sizes or made to measure |
Woman with Fans – Édouard Manet
What does Woman with Fans show?
Across almost the full width of the canvas, a young woman with dark hair piled high on her head stretches out on a sofa. She wears a black ornament in her hair, long earrings and two broad gold bracelets on her forearm. Her head rests on her hand, her lips are bright red, and her gaze settles on the viewer, calm and faintly smiling.
She is dressed in a long black skirt and a short black jacket edged in gold, with a white blouse showing beneath it. Her elbow sinks into a blue cushion, and on the left her feet in gold-brown slippers peep out from under the skirt. A pale, flecked cloth covers the sofa.
Behind her rises a gold-brown hanging with about ten Japanese fans pinned to it, most of them round and bluish. At her feet, half hidden in the folds, lies a small white dog, and in the lower right corner Manet’s signature can just be made out.
Who is the woman on the sofa?
The sitter was a real woman, Nina de Callias. She wears a costume that French sources describe as Algerian and lies on a divan in front of a fabric hung with fans.
The canvas tells no tale from myth or history. It is a portrait of an acquaintance at rest, relaxed and direct.
The sources give the fans, the costume and the golden wall no hidden meaning, so we read none into them; they work as a bright backdrop for the black dress.
Why does this portrait hold the eye?
When he painted Woman with Fans in 1873, Édouard Manet (1832–1883) was forty-one; he was one of the first nineteenth-century artists to paint modern life and a pivotal figure between Realism and Impressionism. His Luncheon on the Grass of 1863 and Olympia of 1865 caused great controversy and are now seen as the start of modern art.
A decade later, Woman with Fans is quiet and private. The large black mass, laid in with broad strokes, sits beside the warm gold of the wall and the cool blue of the cushions, so the eye goes straight to the pale face with its dark eyes.
The only article on the work is a short one on the French Wikipedia, written in French.
Where is the original, and how did it reach the museum?
The original is oil on canvas measuring 113.5 x 166.5 cm (height x width). It belongs to the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, under inventory number RF 2850.
For a long time it stayed in the family. It first belonged to the painter’s brother Eugène Manet, then to his daughter Julie Manet; later it passed to Ernest Rouart, who gave it to the Louvre together with his wife in 1930.
Since 1986 it has been assigned to the Musée d’Orsay.
Woman with Fans or another Manet?
This is a canvas painting for lovers of portraits with character: the woman in black rests and watches you calmly.
Another woman who returns the viewer’s gaze appears in The Waitress, a dark-haired server holding glasses of beer. A quiet domestic scene is Young Boy Peeling a Pear, in which a teenager peels a green pear with a knife over a white plate. You will find a dog in Fishing as well, beside a couple in seventeenth-century costume on a wide river under a rainbow. Entirely different, grave and religious, is Jesus Mocked by the Soldiers, with the bound Christ in a crown of thorns among three soldiers.
More famous Manet paintings, each one painted to order, are gathered on our Édouard Manet page.
How do we hand-paint Woman with Fans?
The original is a large oil on canvas, 166.5 cm wide. Here she becomes an oil painting reproduction on new canvas, which our painter builds up layer by layer in oil on canvas at the size you choose.
He first sets down the long diagonal of the body, from the slippers to the hand under her cheek, and the edge of the sofa, then lays in the gold-brown wall and the blue-green cushions. The black dress grows in several thin layers, so that the folds of the skirt and the gold trim of the jacket still read in the dark.
Last come the face with its red lips, the jewellery, the round fans and the little white dog; the background stays loose, as Manet left it.
Which size fits which wall?
In short: 45 x 30 or 50 x 35 cm for a shelf or a narrow wall, 63 x 45 and 75 x 50 cm above a chest of drawers or a bedside table, 92 x 65 and 105 x 75 cm above a sofa or a bed, and 140 x 92 or 155 x 105 cm for a large wall in the main room.
We paint it in 8 landscape sizes (width x height): 45 x 30, 50 x 35, 63 x 45, 75 x 50, 92 x 65, 105 x 75, 140 x 92 and 155 x 105 cm. The original measures 166.5 x 113.5 cm (width x height), so all eight sizes are smaller than it; the largest, 155 x 105 cm, is a little over 11 cm narrower than the original.
We stop there because the photograph of the original that we paint from would not give sharp enough detail at a larger size. As a painting for the living room it works best at 140 x 92 or 155 x 105 cm above the sofa, where the fans and the gold ornaments read clearly from the doorway.
Can I have a different size or a frame?
Yes, up to 155 x 105 cm. For other proportions we keep the woman, the sofa and the dog whole and adjust only the edge of the fan wall. Send us the size you need for the lady and we come back with a price and a date.
We ship the lady rolled, stretched on a stretcher bar or framed; our workshop in Slovenia does the stretching and framing and packs her safely for the journey. You pick the moulding in our 3D app, which serves only to choose the frame; viewing the painting on your own wall is a separate service. Gold echoes her bracelets; black, her dress.
When will Woman with Fans arrive?
Work on the lady begins the moment you confirm, and she is ready to leave within 15 to 45 working days. Before packing, the finished lady comes to you in a photograph, and we change anything you ask for.
The woman with the fans travels within Slovenia and to every other EU country without customs duties, and each order is covered by our returns policy.
The reclining lady in black makes a fine gift for anyone who loves Paris and portraits, or for a new bedroom. If you cannot tell where she will hang, a wall art voucher leaves the size to the person who receives her.
Frequently asked questions
Where is the original today?
At the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, under inventory number RF 2850; it has been assigned there since 1986.
Who sat for Manet in this work?
Nina de Callias, in a costume that French sources describe as Algerian.
Is it a print or a real painting?
No, the lady is made here as a hand-painted copy, with brushes and oil on canvas.
How large is the original?
It measures 113.5 x 166.5 cm (height x width); all our sizes are smaller, the largest being 155 x 105 cm.
Why is there nothing larger than 155 x 105 cm?
Because the photograph we paint from would not give sharp enough detail at a bigger format.
How long will I wait for the lady with the fans?
15 to 45 working days, with a photograph of the finished lady before she ships.
Is the lady in black right for a bedroom, or as a gift?
Yes. The calm reclining figure and warm colours sit well in a bedroom, and as a gift it pleases anyone who loves portraits.
What lies at the woman’s feet?
A small white dog, half hidden in the folds of the pale cloth on the sofa.
- Subject: Nina de Callias in black, reclining on a sofa before a golden wall hung with Japanese fans, a white dog at her feet.
- Original: oil on canvas, 1873, 113.5 x 166.5 cm, Musée d’Orsay, Paris.
- Ours: an Édouard Manet reproduction painted by hand in oil on canvas, 8 sizes from 45 x 30 to 155 x 105 cm, or made to measure.
- Worth knowing: the work stayed in the Manet family until Ernest Rouart and his wife gave it to the Louvre in 1930.
