This portrait depicts Mary Laurent, a musical comedy and vaudeville actress and a famous courtesan from the Third Republic era. Many writers from that time visited her salon. It is well known that Stéphane Mallarmé dedicated one of his poems to her. Mary Laurent is portrayed with a small bunch of flowers pinned to her black dress, holding a pug in her hands. The painting is done on canvas in the pastel and gouache technique in the impressionist style, with increased expression of the intense color. The color black takes on a special significance in the picture, which reveals the artist’s fascination with the Spanish school of painting.
Mary Laurent’s portrait is one of Manet’s best works.