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This painting is the product of Manet's 1872 trip to Holland, when the impact of Frans Hals was a great revelation. It was Hals, more then the Impressionists, who converted Manet to painting rapidly. He now put his "black" period behind him and embarked upon plein-air.
Madame Manet poses on the beach, and the intense black of her bonnet with its long strings defines the harmonies of the entire painting.
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