La Nymphe surprise, or Surprised Nymph, is a painting by the French impressionist painter Édouard Manet, created in 1861. The model was Suzanne Leenhoff, a pianist whom he married two years later. The painting is a key work in Manet's production, marking the beginning of a new period in his artistic career and generally in the history of modernism in French painting. It is in National Museum of Fine Arts in Buenos Aires and it is considered one of the collection's highlights. La Nymphe surprise remained in the artist's possession his entire life, and there is evidence that, apart from the emotional significance it represented for the artist, Manet considered this painting as one of his most important works.
La Nymphe surprise
Rembrandt, Susanna and the Elders, 1647, Gemäldegalerie, Berlin
Jean-Baptiste Santerre, Susanna at the Bath, c. 1704, Louvre, Paris
Suzanne Manet was a Dutch-born pianist and the wife of the painter Édouard Manet, for whom she frequently modeled.
Édouard Manet, Mme Manet at the Piano, 1867–1868, Musée d'Orsay, Paris
Édouard Manet, Interior at Arcachon (Mme Manet and Léon Leenhoff), 1871, Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts
Edgar Degas, M. and Mme Édouard Manet, 1868–1869,
Édouard Manet, The Startled Nymph, 1859-1861