When composing Spring, Manet had in view both the latest fashion trends and old artistic traditions. An avid connoisseur of feminine couture, he pieced together Jeanne's ensemble himself by scouring dressmakers' and milliners' shops. Posing his model in the studio, however, he referred to portrait conventions of the early Italian Renaissance, presenting her half-length, in profile, and against a mass of greenery. More than just an ephemeral "fashion-plate," Manet's archetypal Spring was conceived as a picture for the ages, summarizing his modern epoch through the figure of a beautiful Parisienne.