Location📍 National Gallery of Art → West Building Main Floor, Gallery M89

Plum Brandy

Edouard Manet’s vertical oil painting, Plum Brandy (c. 1877), captures a woman with light skin sitting at a marble-topped table in a café. Angled slightly to the right, she rests her right cheek on her right hand while gazing into the distance, with a cigarette held in her other hand resting on the tabletop. She is dressed in a pale pink gown featuring long sleeves with ruffled cuffs and a lace bow at the neck, complemented by a black hat encircled with a wide band of lace. On the table before her sits a short, stemmed glass containing a small, round piece of fruit submerged in caramel-colored liquid. The background features wood paneling and a slate-gray metal grate, while the lower half of the composition is occupied by a burgundy, patterned banquette. Manet’s loose brushstrokes are visible throughout the canvas, and the artist signed the work "Manet" near the front edge of the table.