Woman with a Parrot

Painted in 1866, Woman with a Parrot was Courbet's first nude accepted by the Paris Salon that year, after a earlier submission had been rejected in 1864. The model is believed to be Joanna Hiffernan. X‑ray analysis has revealed that Courbet originally depicted a nude man on the right, later replaced by a bird perch.

The painting remained with Courbet until spring 1870, when it was sold to Jules Bordet of Dijon for 15,000 francs. On 30 April 1898 it was acquired by Durand‑Ruel, who on the same day sold it to Henry Osborne Havemeyer and his wife Louisine Waldron Elder for $12,000. The Havemeyers bequeathed the work to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1929.

The painting is held in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, where it entered in 1929 as a bequest from Henry Osborne Havemeyer. Its exhibition history includes a showing at the Paris Salon of 1866, where it was listed as number 463.

Exhibited at the 1866 Salon, Woman with a Parrot provoked mixed criticism: its non-academic pose and disheveled hair were condemned as lacking taste, yet some, like Théophile Gautier, saw a return to tradition, while Émile Zola lamented Courbet’s concession to popular taste. Scholars such as Camille Gronkowski (1929) linked the composition to Pierre-Paul Prud’hon. The painting marks a key moment in Courbet’s career: after his mythological Venus and Psyche was rejected in 1864, he deliberately adapted academic codes but substituted a contemporary nude, which Jules-Antoine Castagnary praised as “a woman of our time.”

It was his first nude accepted by the Salon and a pointed response to Manet’s scandalous Olympia; Manet soon began his own Woman with a Parrot. The work also impressed Cézanne, who reportedly carried a photograph of it. Now at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, it exemplifies Courbet’s negotiation between Realism and academic convention.

The painting's legacy includes its influence on contemporaries: Manet responded by creating his own version later in 1866, and Cézanne was reportedly so struck that he kept a photograph of it. In 1929, art historian Camille Gronkowski drew a comparison to compositions by Pierre-Paul Prud'hon. More recently, in 2001, Kathleen Gilje created a reinterpretation titled Woman with a Parrot, Restored, which incorporates an X-ray image of a hidden male figure, commenting on the male gaze in art history.

The work entered the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1929 and remains a notable example of Courbet's strategic engagement with academic conventions.

Gustave Courbet's Woman with a Parrot, painted in 1866, marked a significant moment in his career. This oil on canvas depicts a reclining female nude accompanied by an exotic bird. Measuring 129.5 by 195.6 cm, the work was Courbet's first nude to gain acceptance at the prestigious Paris Salon, a notable achievement after a previous submission had been rejected for perceived indecency.

The painting features a woman, widely identified as Joanna Hiffernan, posed on white drapery. While her skin tones recall academic ideals, Courbet incorporated realist elements such as her disheveled hair and casually discarded clothing, presenting an unidealized form. A vibrant blue-fronted Amazon parrot hovers towards her outstretched hand, its presence adding a sensual note and reflecting 19th-century associations of exotic birds with feminine charm.