Théodore Duret, Histoire d'Edouard Manet et de son Oeuvre, Paris, 1902, no. 57
Etienne Moreau-Nelaton, Manet Raconté par Lui-meme, Paris, 1926, no. 420
Paul Jamot, Georges Wildenstein and Marie-Louise Bataille, Manet, Paris, 1932, no. 534
Adolphe Tabarant, Manet et ses Oeuvres, Paris, 1947, no. 515, illustrated p. 430
Merete Bodelson, "Early Impressionists Sales, 1874-1894", Burlington Magazine, June 1968, no. 118, illustrated p. 343
Denis Rouart and Sandra Orienti, Tout l'Oeuvre peint d'Edouard Manet, Paris, 1970, no. 373
Denis Rouart and Daniel Wildenstein, Edouard Manet Catalogue Raisonné, Geneva, 1975, vol. II, no. 86, illustrated p. 34
  

Jeunne femme decolletté is a work executed with great spontaneity as well as intimacy.  The spirited technique in the application of the pastel contributes to the great appeal of the work.  In certain areas, especially in the background, the gestural application of pigment creates a soft almost abstract aไtmosphere that is effective as a compliment to the delicate modeling of the sitter's bust and coꩵuntenance.  As in many of Manet's greatest works, the artist blurs the distinctions between the illusionistic purposes of his technique and the pure visual delight of medium manipulated for the pleasure of the eye.

Manet enjoyed the challenge of depicting women and in addition to his wife, many of his family members, friends and artists modeled for him.  "Two of them deserve special mention for their inexhaustible obligingness and the friendship Manet showed them: Mlle Isabelle Lemonnier, the sister of Mme Georges Charpentier, and Méry Laurent, witty and devoted, who, in the years of trial, lavished a thousand attentions and indulgences upon the artist.  Manet relished this female company, he created vivid images of hats miniscule and immense, glistening bodices, lace, fur and fashion generally, in an always odd and seductive setting, for those with eyes to see; he registered eyes light and dark, bright and langorous, painted lips, faces coquettish and naïve" (Paul Jamot and Georges Wildenstein, Manet, Manet's Pastel Portraits of Women, 1932, Reprinted in T.A. Gronberg, Manet, A Retrospective, 1988)

Fig. 1  Edouard Manet, Isabelle Lemonnier, 1879, pastel on ca✨nvas, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (Bequest of Mrs. H.O. Havemeyer, 1929)