Nana is an oil painting produced in 1877 by French painter Edouard Manet.
Monet completes Nana in 1877 and sent this painting for an exhibition the same year but the jury refused it.
In this painting, a young beautiful woman was shown who was wearing a short white chemise, a slip, silk stockings, a blue corset, sleeveless bodice, and high heeled footwear standing in front of the mirror. Behind this woman was a gentleman who was seated on a sofa on the right end of the painting, dressed with a top hat very gently was staring at the woman while she turned to face the gentleman. With the visuals of the figure, it suggests that the figure was of a prostitute and her upper-class client. On the left side of the canvas, there was a chair, table, candles, and a flowerpot. The extinguished candle at that period symbolizes a lack of affection or love.
Nana was a very popular name for a woman in the late of 19th century, a woman who was a harlot. Nana was a French word that was used to describe a frivolous woman. Manet completed the work of Nana all at once which is also known by the name alla prima style. In this alla prima style, instead of layering the oil paints one after the other or glazing over an underpainting, he painted several scenes of this painting quickly at the moment as he perceived it in a direct style with darker colors and expressive style of the line in mind.
This painting by Manet depicts many realistic scenes of impression period and thus he became an important figure in French artist society in transition from Realistic to Impressionistic art. Manet was also one of the first painters who painted modern life figures and subjects. Manet several paintings were controversial and thus got rejected by the jury of the salon. The dimensions of the painting were 264 cm × 115 cm or 104 in × 45 in.