Woman with a parrot by Courbet

From The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide, 1983 page 229.

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132 GUSTAVE COURBET, French, 1819-1877
Woman with a Parrot
Oil on canvas; 51 x 77 in. (129.5 x 195.6 cm)

Painted in 1865-66, Woman with a Parrot was one of two works that Courbet showed in the Salon of 1866. It is the best known of the series of nudes that he painted in the 1860s. The model's sensuality is emphasized by the exotic richness of details like the bird's bright plumage and the landscape and tapestry backgrounds. Critics censured Courbet's "lack of taste," as well as his model's "ungainly pose" and "disheveled hair." Their comments made clear that Courbet's woman was perceived as provocative. In 1866 Manet began his version of the subject, Woman with a Parrot (no. 139). H. 0. Havemeyer Collection, Bequest of Mrs. H. 0. Havemeyer, 1929, 29.100.57