Woman In A Riding Habit (L'amazone)

This painting of a horsewoman (in French,?amazone) was long thought to represent the poet and novelist Louise Colet, muse of writer Gustave Flaubert. However, the sitter has since been identified as Madame Clement Laurier. This work, made on the occasion of her marriage in 1856, forms a pair with Courbet's portrait of her husband (1855, Milwaukee Art Museum). The artist Mary Cassatt admired this picture as the finest woman's portrait Courbet ever did.�