Manet’s initial response to this anarchy is to push it out of view (but not out of mind). His first painting of Victorine excludes her body - and her powerful sexuality - entirely. In Portrait of Victorine Meurent (1862), Manet allows only Meurent’s tired face within the rigid confines of the frame. Manet seems frantic to keep control within these bounds. He places Victorine’s face under a harsh, strong light as if he wants to examine every detail, a sort of visual interrogation. With the source of her power excluded, he seems to think, he can examine, control, confront the rest of her. This is a more intimate work than Manet’s later paintings of Victorine: the painting was never exhibited during Manet’s lifetime, and it is thought he gave it to Victorine as a gift (Siebert 89). It is a portrait not just of Victorine, but of her private relationship to Manet. The sense of confrontation and conflict in the Victorine paintings derive from this relationship itself, one defined by a struggle for control. Here, Victorine’s answer to Manet’s interrogation is an unyielding gaze, reminding him of the unanswered challenge outside the frame. Her sexuality is out of view and out of control.
Manet, Edouard. Portrait of Victorine Meurent. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.