Because the work has been so generally unknown for so long, it is best to discuss its provenance history and authenticity in some detail, before turning to a discussion of its fascinating place in Manet’s art. Given the considerable rumors about fake works by Manet on the international market at the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth, when Bourgeois acquired the painting he ought to have shown it to the various Paris-based scholars with a special interest in Manet. To begin, he should have sought the opinion of the executor of the painter’s estate, Théodore Duret (1838-1927), who published a catalogue raisonné of Manet’s authentic works in 1902, which was re-issued with a supplement in 1919. The fact that Berthe Morisot on a divan is not included in either version of the Duret catalogue suggests that Bourgeois opted for some reason not to consult with Manet’s old friend, who had himself at various times owned three paintings of Morisot by Manet. Bourgeois ought also to have shown his painting to the great scholar-collector-philanthropist, Etienne Moreau-Nélaton (1859-1927), who in 1926 would publish a model biography of Manet along with a catalogue raisonné of his works. While historian, Adolphe Tabarant (1863-1950), likely had not begun his classic 1931 account of Manet and his works at the time when Bourgeois brought his painting to New York, Bourgeois could easily have contacted him in the 1920s. Likewise, Bourgeois ought eventually to have made an attempt to contact his fellow dealer, Georges Wildenstein, who with Paul Jamot co-authored yet another complete catalogue of Manet’s paintings, published in Paris in 1932. (In itself, the fact that so many catalogues were undertaken gives some indication of the uncertainties concerning authentic Manet works.) Yet Berthe Morisot on a Divan is not mentioned in any of these standard reference works.